Katherine Legge Impresses In First Day Of Indianapolis 500 Qualifying

Katherine Legge is the only woman in this year's Indianapolis 500 field, and just the 10th to ever qualify for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

Saturday was the first day of qualifying for the Indy 500. All 34 drivers vying to make the 33-car field had around six hours to lay down 4 laps as fast as they possibly can. The top 12 will compete for pole on Sunday, while the bottom 4 will compete for the three places on the back row of the grid, with one of them going home.

So, the only positions on the grid set in stone Saturday afternoon were P13 through P30. Legge managed to snag that last spot up for grabs with a 4-lap average speed of 231.070 mph. She will start next Sunday's race in P30.

While that may not sound super impressive, here's why it was.

Katherine Legge was the only Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 on Saturday. (Photo by Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Legge Finished On Top While Her Entire Team Struggled With Pace

Legge is driving a fourth car for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for this year's Indianapolis 500. While other teams had very disappointing outings on Saturday (*cough*Andretti*cough*) no team had cars as lacking in the pace department as RLL.

Yet, Legge managed to be the team's top finisher in her only appearance for the team this year. Her teammates Graham Rahal, Christian Lundgaard, and Jack Harvey all finished outside the top 30. They will have to qualify onto the last row if they want to even start the Indianapolis 500.

The final run belonged to Lundgaard who had the chance to knock her into the last-chance qualifier. However, he failed to improve his average speed.

Legge's success shouldn't be a huge surprise though. The woman has one hell of a resume. She has previous IndyCar experience and has driven sports cars, run a couple of Formula E races, and even tested a Formula 1 car.

The fastest driver on Saturday was Arrow McLaren's Felix Rosenqvis who averaged 233.947 mph. Just behind him was teammate Alexander Rossi. All four Mclaren drivers made the Fast 12, as did all four Chip Ganassi Racing drivers.

As previously mentioned, Andretti Autosport had a disappointing day. The team failed to put any of their cars in the Fast 12. The lead Andretti Honda in this year's Indy 500 will be the No. 27 of Kyle Kirkwood, who will start the race in P15.

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