Los Angeles (AFP)
Frenchman Simon Pagenaud, the day before the pole position for the 500 miles of Indianapolis Sunday, has set the fastest time of the test session on Monday.
The Penske team driver clocked the best of his 88 laps of the Indianapolis Oval Circuit in 39 sec 3975 / 10000th, an average speed of 367.6 km / h.
He beat his American teammate Josef Newgarden (39.4265) and Canadian James Hinchcliffe (Arrow Schmidt Peterson, 39.4748).
"It was very useful to have a session with a lot of cars on the track, it was like we were racing," said 2016 IndyCar champion, whose best result at "Indy" is his 6th place in 2018 .
"We found, I think, the right configuration for our car," he added.
The 103rd edition of the 500 miles of Indianapolis will be played Sunday without its attraction, the Spaniard Fernando Alonso (McLaren) who failed to qualify for the race.
The two-time Formula 1 World Champion finished 31st on the first day of qualifying on Saturday with the top 30 on the starting grid, then missed one of the last three qualifying places on Sunday, finishing fourth in a row. session reserved for the six slowest drivers.
? 2019 AFP