The world's longest and fastest qualifying: this is the Indy 500 qualifying

The Indianapolis 500 is a peculiar race, and it is best seen in its spectacular qualifying system, for which an entire weekend is reserved.

And, in addition, it will be full of intensity. Because the driver who takes pole position on Sunday, May 18 will have done so after a total of eight and a half hours of session, spread over Saturday and Sunday, and three qualifying phases (this is the only thing in which it resembles Formula 1).

Indy 500 qualifying: how the process works

It all starts on Friday with the draw for the order of drivers to go out on Saturday... and luck can be decisive, especially for the outsiders. Unlike in Formula 1, in the Indy 500 the colder the track, the better for the cars. And given that Saturday's session starts at 11:00 local time, it's easy to deduce that the sooner you go out to make your first attempt, the better.

The starting grid is set by averaging the speed over four flying laps. The reference is taken in miles per hour (and they will certainly be moving above 230 mph, i.e. more than 370 km/h on average), so the first step is for the 34 cars that will take part in qualifying to have a guaranteed attempt. The drivers will go out in the order that luck has given them in the previous draw and, if they have an accident before finishing their four laps, they will be given another chance when everyone has completed their first attempt

There we already have a first reference... but when everyone has set an average speed, there are options to improve it... until 17:50 local time, 23:50 Spanish time. At that time is when Saturday's session will end (something like Q1 in F1) and the first final positions will be established

But to qualify for the improvement there are two ways and this will be reflected in the two rows that the pit lane will have. One of them will have preference to return to the track, but in return the previous attempts will be erased. The other will allow the previous attempt to be maintained, but will only be able to go out on track if there is no car in the preferential. In this way, the rest of the session will , with all the attempts that give time (always with a single car on track, logically) until the checkered flag waves.

At that point we will already know a lot. The top 12 will advance to the next phase of the battle for pole, the bottom four will fight for the three places on the back row in a dramatic elimination session and positions 13 to 30 will be definitively established

Pole... and drama

Sunday is one of the most exciting days of the two weeks of the Indianapolis 500. The pole is decided in two all-or-nothing sessions (with a single attempt in each): the Fast 12, which filters the six fastest for the Fast 6, where the poleman of the 109th edition of the Indy 500 will be crowned

Between the two sessions will come the most dramatic moment of the race: the session officially known as Last Chance Qualifying, but popularly known as Bump Day. For one hour, the four cars will be able to make multiple attempts to qualify (always with at least one guaranteed), although each time they repeat they will lose the previous record.

Points at stake

Another peculiarity of the Indy 500 qualifying is that it awards points to the top twelve... and not a small amount. The pole winner (in addition to a cash prize) will score 12 points, and so on down to the extra point for the twelfth.