Fernando Alonso's Maiden Indy 500 Run Ends With An Engine Blowout

McLaren Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso's maiden attempt at the Indy 500 came to a disappointing halt after an engine failure ended his run at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Alonso skipped the Monaco Grand Prix to contest in the American race and led for a total of 27 laps before his Andretti Autosport Honda race car gave up with just 21 laps to go, while he was in the seventh place. However, Takuma Sato for Andretti Autosport won the Indy 500 defeating Team Penske's Helio Castroneves in an 11-lap duel.

It's no surprise that Alonso has been facing engine woes with his McLaren car in F1 and it seemed the troubles weren't ready to leave him at Indy 500. Alonso's teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay was one of the stronger contenders for the win but the American driver's ambitions went out in smoke after his Honda engine blew out on Lap 138. This made way for Alonso to gain a better position in the 200 lap race.

Fernando Alonso even led the race for 27 laps

However, the Honda jinx followed Alonso here as well and the engine eventually gave up on the two time F1 world champion. "I felt the noise and the engine friction so I backed off," said Alonso. "It's a shame because I felt we deserved to finish and experience the last lap - who knows where we could have finished."

The race also involved a major crash on Lap 53 with 2008 winner Scott Dixon going airborne for a few seconds and landing heavily in the infield wall. Dixon however, managed to survive the crash, but the incident caused the red flag to come out bringing in the first of many caution periods in the race.

However, what's been most unfortunate has been McLaren's weekend that ended with DNFs. While Alonso faced an engine blow out at Indy 500, Vandoorne too faced technical issues retiring early from the F1 Monaco GP while Alonso's replacement Jenson Button faced a terminal damage after he pitched into Pascal Wehrlein's car turning the latter sideways.

It's only unfortunate that Fernando Alonso's Indianapolis 500 run had to end in a retirement. More so, since the F1 driver had the highest average lap speed in the race, and pulled a brilliant pass on the Brazilian driver Tony Kanaan in the closing laps of the race to take sixth place. Alonso's performance was applauded by the Indy veterans, given the fact that he is still a rookie on the 370 kmph oval track.

Nevertheless, experience the long straights of America, Fernando Alonso will now be coming back to the McLaren pits and will be preparing for the Canadian Grand Prix scheduled for next month.