Marco Andretti ends Indy 500 opening practice fastest, Fernando Alonso P19

Marco Andretti has ended the opening practice session for the 101st running of the Indianapolis 500 fastest, after a busy day of track action around the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Andretti’s best lap was 226.338mph and was completed during the final hour of track action.

The drivers were treated to over four hours of track action as preparations began for the coveted event, with the rookie orientation/refresher programme also taking place earlier in the day.

Despite receiving a private rookie orientation programme several weeks ago double Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso ended the first two hour ROP fastest for McLaren Honda Andretti with a 221.634mph lap, as he was joined by fellow rookies Ed Jones and Jack Harvey amongst others.

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Once the two hour ROP session was complete the remainder of the field joined the action, as the official opening practice session got underway.

Four-time champion Scott Dixon completed several late improvements to end the day second overall for Chip Ganassi Racing, after a productive day for Honda power and the Ganassi team as a whole.

Ed Carpenter was a competitive P3, after spending the majority of the day towards the sharp end of the order.

At the start of the session Carpenter was one of the first drivers to take to the track along with team-mate J.R. Hildebrand, completing 48 laps throughout the day.

Sebastien Bourdais was P4 ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay, with Graham Rahal sixth for RLL Racing.

Despite finishing well within the top ten Rahal’s day was brought to a premature conclusion when a mechanical issue struck his car, forcing him to return to the pits with smoke intermittently wafting from the rear of his #15 machine.

Will Power was the highest Penske driver in P7, with the team slowly building up to speed after an utterly dominant weekend last time out around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Tony Kanaan was forced to settle for P8 despite trading the top spot with Carpenter, eventually ending the session ahead of Mikhail Aleshin.

Takuma Sato rounded out the top ten for Andretti Autosport, just ahead of returnees Oriol Servia and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Meanwhile further down the order F1 star Alonso could only manage P19 with a 223.025mph lap, albeit only +0.5907s from the benchmark produced by full-time racer Andretti.

During the official practice session Alonso only completed 20 laps, yet still managed to end the day ahead of full-time racers Josef Newgarden, Helio Castroneves and James Hinchcliffe.

Although there were many caution periods due to debris and subsequent track inspections, British rookie Jack Harvey was the only driver to suffer an incident throughout the day.

The former GP3 and IndyLights driver exited the pit-lane and ran straight into the retaining SAFER barrier, sustaining light damage to his car and ending his continuation in the session.