Two qualifying laps at the Indy 500 have made history, with Tony Kanaan matching Ed Carpenter’s four-lap speed to an exact dead heat, all the way down to the 10,000th of a second.

IndyCar legend Kanaan, who is competing in his final Indy 500 this year for Arrow McLaren, was looking to find a way into the Fast 12 for Sunday on his second run around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

And in improving his speed to 232.620mph, he in fact matched Carpenter’s four-lap average speed to the exact decimal point, leading to confusion as to who was ever-so-slightly faster of the two.

But when the times were looked at instead of the average speed, it was found that both runs were the exact same, all the way down to the 10,000th of a second.

Kanaan took to Twitter afterwards joking about any weight that could have been saved, quipping: “Should not have had lunch I guess.”

While this dead heat was for the crucial 12th position, there was still time for either driver to improve as the session progressed.

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Shortly afterwards, Kyle Kirkwood came oh-so-close to matching the time set by the pair himself, with 232.617mph as his average speed being just a fraction off what Kanaan and Carpenter were able to manage.

Over the 10 miles of four laps of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it is being declared as a qualifying first for a dead heat between two drivers, with Saturday qualifying ongoing for the Indy 500 next weekend and due to be completed at 5.50pm local time [10.50pm UK time].

Several former Formula 1 drivers are in the field, including Romain Grosjean, Marcus Ericsson – who took victory at last year’s Indy 500, Alexander Rossi and Takuma Sato, twice a winner around the Brickyard.

The article Indy 500 history made with qualifying dead heat matching to 10,000th of a second appeared first on Planetf1.com.