Scott McLaughlin has made an impressive start to his Indianapolis 500 campaign, going third quickest in a weather-affected opening practice.
The 27-year-old completed 18 laps in the first full-field session as the build up to his 500 debut officially got underway.
At the end of the two-hour session, Graham Rahal was fastest of the 30 drivers to take part, logging a 40.2776s to be 0.0053s clear of nearest rival Scott Dixon.
McLaughlin was a tenth adrift of his Kiwi compatriot, having set his best time on his 12th lap of the session.
That made him the only Team Penske driver in the top five, which was rounded out by Juan Pablo Montoya and Ed Jones.
Penske’s other drivers Will Power, Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden were sixth, 24th and 29th respectively.
Last year’s event winner Takumo Sato was 20th in Practice 1, six places ahead of Simona De Silvestro.
Weather at Indianapolis Motor Speedway caused the yellow flag to be deployed at various times during the session.
JR Hildebrand, Stefan Wilson and RC Enerson took part in the subsequent rookie orientation and refresher programme session, with their times not counted in the Practice 1 results.
Practice 2 is currently underway and is due to finish at 08:00 AEST.
Practice 1 results: Indianapolis 500
RANK | DRIVER | CAR NO. | BEST TIME | IN LAP | BEST SPEED | LAPS | DIFF. |
1 | Graham Rahal | 15 | 00:40.3 | 18 | 223.449 | 19 | –.—- |
2 | Scott Dixon | 9 | 00:40.3 | 9 | 223.42 | 20 | 0.0053 |
3 | Scott McLaughlin | 3 | 00:40.4 | 12 | 222.836 | 18 | 0.1109 |
4 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 86 | 00:40.4 | 10 | 222.781 | 19 | 0.1209 |
5 | Ed Jones | 18 | 00:40.4 | 5 | 222.7 | 19 | 0.1355 |
6 | Will Power | 12 | 00:40.5 | 29 | 222.436 | 30 | 0.1835 |
7 | Santino Ferrucci | 45 | 00:40.5 | 10 | 222.204 | 18 | 0.2258 |
8 | Pato O’Ward | 5 | 00:40.5 | 10 | 222.181 | 22 | 0.23 |
9 | James Hinchcliffe | 29 | 00:40.5 | 11 | 221.99 | 11 | 0.2647 |
10 | Helio Castroneves | 6 | 00:40.6 | 6 | 221.861 | 19 | 0.2884 |
11 | Conor Daly | 47 | 00:40.6 | 10 | 221.681 | 17 | 0.3212 |
12 | Sage Karam | 24 | 00:40.7 | 21 | 221.328 | 26 | 0.3861 |
13 | Tony Kanaan | 48 | 00:40.7 | 8 | 220.902 | 10 | 0.4645 |
14 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 28 | 00:40.8 | 11 | 220.805 | 12 | 0.4824 |
15 | Colton Herta | 26 | 00:40.8 | 10 | 220.662 | 12 | 0.5087 |
16 | Marco Andretti | 98 | 00:40.8 | 18 | 220.626 | 21 | 0.5154 |
17 | Alex Palou | 10 | 00:40.8 | 11 | 220.5 | 18 | 0.5388 |
18 | Sebastien Bourdais | 14 | 00:40.8 | 7 | 220.371 | 15 | 0.5626 |
19 | Marcus Ericsson | 8 | 00:40.9 | 19 | 220.104 | 30 | 0.6121 |
20 | Takuma Sato | 30 | 00:40.9 | 4 | 220.007 | 18 | 0.6301 |
21 | Rinus VeeKay | 21 | 00:40.9 | 7 | 219.999 | 13 | 0.6317 |
22 | Ed Carpenter | 20 | 00:41.0 | 8 | 219.62 | 12 | 0.7022 |
23 | Max Chilton | 59 | 00:41.1 | 8 | 219.027 | 14 | 0.8132 |
24 | Simon Pagenaud | 22 | 00:41.1 | 15 | 218.994 | 17 | 0.8194 |
25 | Felix Rosenqvist | 7 | 00:41.1 | 9 | 218.733 | 18 | 0.8685 |
26 | Simona De Silvestro | 16 | 00:41.2 | 8 | 218.484 | 10 | 0.9153 |
27 | Alexander Rossi | 27 | 00:41.3 | 4 | 217.716 | 11 | 1.0606 |
28 | Pietro Fittipaldi | 51 | 00:41.4 | 19 | 217.576 | 28 | 1.0873 |
29 | Josef Newgarden | 2 | 00:41.6 | 3 | 216.101 | 11 | 1.3695 |
30 | Dalton Kellett | 4 | 10:30.4 | 1 | 14.277 | 2 | 09:50.1 |