F1 News
Alonso's IndyCar return hit by rain delay
- Jake Williams-Smith
Fernando Alonso's return to IndyCar was curtailed by a rain-affected practice session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Wednesday. The Spaniard was behind an IndyCar ahead of his second attempt at winning the Indy 500.
Unlike back in 2017 when he raced in an Andretti Autosport entry, Alonso will be racing in a McLaren Chevrolet in the team's first foray back into oval racing since the 1970s.
Alonso clocked 29 laps during the driver evaluation test, reaching an average speed of 218.690mph.
"It's good to be back, to feel again the magic of the place," Alonso explained after stepping out of the car.
"Unfortunately, the weather was not stable enough to follow the times that we had in terms of practice. Yeah, at the end, it was not enough laps and not enough time on the car to get the proper feeling.
"For us, obviously, we lost a little bit of time at the beginning. This was more or less expected because, as I said, it was a brand new chassis, brand new car.
"Everything fit in the last week. We expect to run slowly, step by step, short runs at the beginning. It's what we did.
"So, yeah, if we could probably have the (initial) laps at midday, maybe you discover these issues, then you have hours to work on the car, be ready for the afternoon.
"The weather delays everything. You do the lap at 5:30 p.m., and there is no room to get back on track on time."