INDYCAR

Karam surprised and leads the eighth free practice of the 500 Mi
He is only 24th in the 33-car Indianapolis 500 grid, but showed some strength on Monday (21). Sage Karam, Dreyer & Reinbold's # 24 rider, took the lead in the eighth free practice even in the first moments of there no more left, securing the best lap time at the opening of the week of the main race of American motoring.Karam scored the time of 39'742 as early as one of the first attempts. On a day marked by traffic rallies simulating racing situations, most riders' goal was not necessarily to break Indiana timers.Ryan Hunter-Reay was the second fastest, but not so close to Karam. The # 28 driver was 0s290 worse than the leader, captaining a group of riders with similar incomes. Charlie Kimball, Alexander Rossi and Will Power completed the top-5, all with times in the 40s.Tony Kanaan was tenth, repeating Foyt's consistent performance in Sunday's standings. Matheus Leist, who suffered mechanical problems and spent a lot of time in the garage, did not get the desired mileage and appeared only 18th in the timesheet. It was only 19 laps for the rookie, while the rider with more laps in the session, Will Power, added 120.The negative highlight of the day was Robert Wickens. The Canadian has increased the still-low number of crashes in Indiana's preparations after losing control on the opposite straight and crashing head-on. This is a further setback for Schmidt Peterson, who has already experienced the trauma of losing James Hinchcliffe at Bump Day in a highly unexpected fashion.

The rain decided to show up just as the cars were on the track on Monday. In this way, the eighth free practice suffered a slight delay, starting at 2pm (in Brasilia). Although the track did not inspire such confidence, a lot of people already went to start laps, looking for the first hits for the race of the weekend.With full lane, the speeds were not yet so fast. The first driver to get down from the 40s was Sage Karam, who turned 39s742, almost 0s3 faster than Ryan Hunter-Reay.And then came a nice blow. Robert Wickens slipped, touched the wall on Turn 2 and, after yards of little control, faced the straight, damaging the front very much and forcing the first yellow. It was a good few minutes to get the pilot's car - which was fine.The following minutes ended up being different mileage and attempts from the teams, but without many changes in relation to the times. Charlie Kimball was one of those who could climb, becoming third.The session crawled with a crowded track, but without much time lapsing and enough work with the vacuum. In the middle of that, several yellow flag appearances for track inspections, with a rain that continued to threaten. And Matheus Leist was not even leaving for the final hour, suffering from electrical problems once again.

Grand Prix