Fernando Alonso secures a place in the nine-car pole shootout at the Indy 500

Fernando Alonso secured himself a spot in Sunday's nine car shootout for pole after another impressive performance at the Indy 500.

Qualifying was delayed by five hours due to heavy rain and meant each driver was only afforded one attempt, adding to the pressure on the Spaniard.

But it appeared to have no impact on Alonso, who promised after his run that there was more speed to come on Sunday.

He finished the day seventh quickest with an average speed of 230.034 mph across his four-lap run, just 0.4 mph slower than Ed Carpenter who led the way.

Carpenter's lap was perhaps the surprise of the day given Honda power was expected to dominate, but both he and team-mate JR Hildebrand secured spots in the shootout with their Chevrolet engines. Will Power was the only other non-Honda runner to make the shootout.

Completing the 'Fast 9 Shootout' line-up were Takuma Sato, Scott Dixon, Alexander Rossi, Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti.

Ex-F1 driver Sebastien Bourdais had looked on course for a spot in Sunday's pole shootout before a horror crash at Turn Two.

The Frenchman was taken from the track to IU Health Methodist Hospital by ambulance for evaluation with IndyCar saying he was "awake and alert".

After examination statement from IndyCar said that Bourdais had suffered "multiple fractures to his pelvis and a fracture to his right hip.

"According to IndyCar Medical Director Dr. Geoffrey Billows, Bourdais will undergo surgery on his pelvis this evening at IU Health Methodist Hospitral."

As for the British contingent, Ed Jones was 10th quickest, Max Chilton 12th, Jack Harvey 25th and Pippa Mann 31st. They will all compete again on Sunday prior to the 'Fast 9 Shootout' for positions 10-33 on the grid.