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Sebastien Bourdais wrecks, Ed Carpenter tops in Indy 500 qualifying

By Brittany Frederick

Apr 23, 2017; Birmingham, AL, USA; Sebastien Bourdais waves during driver introductions for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. Mandatory Credit: Shanna Lockwood-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 23, 2017; Birmingham, AL, USA; Sebastien Bourdais waves during driver introductions for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. Mandatory Credit: Shanna Lockwood-USA TODAY Sports /
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Sebastien Bourdais suffered a terrible crash and Ed Carpenter topped the speed charts in Saturday’s first day of Indy 500 qualifying.

The first day of Indy 500 qualifying was surprising for both good and terrible reasons, as Sebastien Bourdais endured a vicious wreck on his qualifying attempt and Ed Carpenter surprised the field by capturing the fastest time on Saturday.

Bourdais lost control of his No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing entry and went straight-on into the wall at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His car caught fire as it went airborne and then flipped, with debris scattered across the track.

The St. Petersburg race winner was taken directly to the hospital as a precautionary measure after complaining of some hip and lower extremity pain, but was reported on-air as being awake and alert.

IndyCar has not yet provided any further updates on his condition, but news station RTV6 posted footage of Sebastien Bourdais’ crash shortly after it happened:

After the red flag was lifted on the qualifying session (which had already been late starting due to rain), several cars benefited from a late draw. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon set the bar early but was eventually bested by Andretti Autosport’s Takuma Sato, who was the last of his team’s cars to run. Sato, in turn, was beaten for the top spot by Ed Carpenter, one of the final drivers who made a qualifying attempt.

The nine fastest cars from Saturday’s session will qualify again Sunday as part of the Fast Nine shootout, with the quickest car winning the Indianapolis 500 pole position.

The rest of the field will also have to re-qualify on Sunday, but the highest position any of those cars can reach is 10th place. Positions 10 through 33 will be decided in that second group, which surprisingly includes four of the five Team Penske drivers. Only Will Power was able to make it into the Fast Nine.

Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso qualified seventh as he makes his Verizon IndyCar Series debut.

Below are the nine drivers who will compete for the Indy 500 pole on Sunday:

1 – Ed Carpenter
2 – Takuma Sato
3 – Scott Dixon
4 – JR Hildebrand
5 – Alexander Rossi
6 – Will Power
7 – Fernando Alonso
8 – Tony Kanaan
9 – Marco Andretti

And here are the Saturday qualifying results for the remainder of the field:

10 – Ed Jones
11 – Charlie Kimball
12 – Max Chilton
13 – Ryan Hunter-Reay
14 – Helio Castroneves
15 – Mikhail Aleshin
16 – Graham Rahal
17 – Josef Newgarden
18 – Juan Pablo Montoya
19 – James Hinchcliffe
20 – Simon Pagenaud
21 – Sage Karam
22 – Jay Howard
23 – Carlos Munoz
24 – Oriol Servia
25 – Jack Harvey
26 – Gabby Chaves
27 – Conor Daly
28 – Sebastian Saavedra
29 – Spencer Pigot
30 – Buddy Lazier
31 – Pippa Mann

Next: Verizon IndyCar Series standings before the Indy 500

The second day of Indianapolis 500 qualifying takes place on Sunday, May 20. To find out when and how to watch qualifying live, check out our Indy 500 viewing guide here. To keep up with all the news throughout IndyCar, follow the Motor Sports category at FanSided here.

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