Fernando Alonso passes first Indy 500 driving test at the Brickyard | Richard Williams


McLaren’s No1 driver seemed to enjoy a few day away from his F1 purgatory at the world-famous oval in readiness for Memorial Day weekend

Fernando Alonso smiled as he got out of the cockpit at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Wednesday. That was good to see. A hundred laps of the two-and-a-half-mile high-speed oval had given him all the evidence he needed that driving a racing car could still be a fun thing to do.

A couple of weeks ago, fed up with waiting for McLaren-Honda to give him a competitive Formula One car, Alonso announced that he intended to skip the Monaco Grand Prix – a race of supreme commercial importance to all F1 teams and their sponsors – on 28 May in order to compete for the first time in the Indianapolis 500, which occupies the same date.

Related: Fernando Alonso and McLaren should be admired for Indy 500 decision | Giles Richards

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