Alonso encouraged by first day of 500 practice

Fernando Alonso says he feels encouraged by his first day of Indy 500 practice, despite his running time having been shortened by a suspension problem.

The Spaniard completed a total of 20 laps at a top speed of 223.025mph, good enough for 19th-fastest on his first day of sharing the track with the full field.

"I was a little bit concerned about the conditions, about the temperature," he said. "[It was] much hotter today than the test we did here on the 3rd. But the car felt good, felt as good as in the test, and I was able to make some setup changes without losing the confidence in the car. Everything went very smooth.

"The last half an hour, we had some issues with the rear suspension, and we could not complete our program – we were planning to run a little bit in traffic at the end of the day, so we missed that part, but overall it was an amazing day. Happier than the first day with the car, because I was able to feel some of the setup changes that we were planning in the morning. I feel good.

"Not much running in traffic, so [that is] still the thing that I need to go through in the next couple of days. That is something we need to chase tomorrow. But I did two or three laps behind some cars that were going out of pit lane, and it was good fun, so I'm looking forward [to it]."

Andretti's six-car program gives Alonso access to a deep pool of data and knowledge as he works to fast-track his acclimatization to the speedway, and after watching the team's full-timers try some of the setups that he'd run earlier in the day, he said that he was looking forward to hearing their feedback.

"I'm definitely looking forward to listening to what they felt today," he said. "Especially the last hour of running, [because] I missed most of it. It will be interesting to know we can bring forward for tomorrow in my car, as well. At this point of the week, whatever [my teammates] test and whatever is positive, I trust more than myself, so I will keep all those changes."

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