F1 champ Alonso fails to qualify for Indy 500

Fernando Alonso missed qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday by .019 mph.

Instead, veteran Canadian James Hinchcliffe and two young Americans -- 24-year-old Pennsylvanian Sage Karam and 23-year-old Kyle Kaiser of California -- gained the final three spots in the 33-driver field for the May 26 race.

The 37-year-old Spaniard, a two-time Formula One champion, was attempting to complete his goal to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport: the Monaco Grand Prix, Le Mans 24 Hours and the Indy 500. Only one driver in history, Graham Hill, has achieved that.

But his four-lap qualifying time of 227.353 was just below the 227.372 turned in by Kaiser.

Alonso left the F1 circuit to concentrate on this effort and was working with McLaren, a British racing team that hadn't had a car in the Indy 500 since the 1970s.

Meanwhile, Simon Pagenaud won the pole for the 103rd edition of the race with a qualifying average of 229.992, just better than Ed Carpenter (229.889). Pagenaud is the first Frenchman to win the pole since Rene Thomas in 1919.

"I think when you look at Simon's run today, it was amazing consistency for him to run laps over 230," said Roger Penske, whose Team Penske won a record 18th Indy 500 pole. "I want to congratulate him in front of all you. We had four good cars, but he was strong all month. He had to execute.

"I knew if there was going to be one guy who was going to get on the pole, it was Simon. These past few weeks, he's been terrific. Now it's time to get the big one."

The field is separated from 1 to 33 by just 1.8932 seconds, breaking the mark of 2.1509 set in 2014.

Max Chilton and Patricio O'Ward were the other two drivers eliminated on Sunday.

Karam and Hinchcliffe had crashed in qualifying on Saturday.

--Field Level Media