Fernando Alonso in danger of missing the cut at Indy 500

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Former Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso and prolific Canadian race driver James Hinchcliffe are staring at the danger of missing the Indianapolis 500 after a terrible first day of qualifying.

Back from his disastrous crash on Wednesday, a gritty Alonso, driving his McLaren back-up car, needed four attempts to make it to the top 30 and that would have locked him into the field for the May 26 race.

But Graham Rahal made a final qualifying effort at the buzzer on Saturday to knock Alonso out of the field. The Spaniard and five other drivers will have their one last chance on Sunday to clinch the final three spots in the 33-driver field.

Fernando Alonso of McLaren with David Beckham at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Sakhir, Bahrain, March 31, 2019. /VCG Photo

Meanwhile, Hinchcliffe suffered a crash during his first qualifying attempt on Saturday and subsequently, he couldn't accelerate enough speed in his backup car to drive his way into the protected top 30 starting positions for "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing."

While reflecting on his dismal performance on Saturday, Alonso said, "I think we didn't have the speed so we are where we deserved today and hopefully tomorrow we have another chance to be in the race and if we can take it okay, if we don't take it, it is because we don't deserve it so, I'm happy with it anyway."

"Well not much to be honest, I think it has been the whole week okay, you know, and the speed is not really there probably in the car and we will not find it in one night so we will try to do a good and clean run and hopefully that will put us in the top 30 positions," he added.