McLaughlin third in opening Indy 500 practice

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.

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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