Fernando Alonso has been cleared to make his debut at the Indy 500 on May 28 after completing his mandatory rookie orientation programme at Indianapolis on Wednesday.
Rookies of the iconic oval race have to complete laps within various ranges of speed in order to compete, slowly building up before they are allowed to run at full pace. In the space of 51 laps, Alonso covered 10 laps at 205-10 mph, 15 laps at 210-215 mph and then 15 laps between 215 mph and 220 mph.
Alonso, driving in an orange McLaren-Andretti Autosport entry powered by Honda, which had been unveiled on Wednesday morning, will continue running at the circuit across lunch to finish his opening day of practice in the car. The day was delayed by nearly an hour before Marco Andretti conducted a shakedown of the No.29 car.
He then handed the car over to Alonso, who said he got to grips with his new ride almost instantly.
"It was fun," Alonso said after completing the initial phase of his test. "It's a good way to start, to build the speed. Probably a little bit difficult at the beginning to reach the minimum, but then on the next stages it felt good. Now hopefully we can put some laps and start feeling a little bit of the car.
"[It's comfortable], not because of speed, just because of the laps," he said. "With 40 laps in the pocket you're able to fine-tune a little bit the lines, and the upshift and downshift, which gear to use in which corner, etc. At the moment everything looks good. Now we start the real thing. I think the feeling on the simulator is quite realistic.
"You have the first touch, the first impression of how it's going to be. But the real car is just a unique feeling, so when you have to go flat-out in the corner it's not the same as the simulator. So far it's been good, the team is amazingly helpful, everyone, Marco. Running alone is quite OK... we'll see the later on in the next weeks. It was so far a good experience. Now I think we start the real deal."
Alonso ran as fast as 219.654mph during his rookie orientation session. The test will continue throughout Wednesday.