Unser qualifies, then gets bumped at Indy

Once, Al Unser Jr. was the guy to beat at Indy. Now, he’s just one of the drivers trying to find a way into the lineup.

The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner was bumped from the tentative field at Indianapolis on Sunday, the second of four days of qualifications for the May 27 race.

Unser qualified during an early flurry of activity on the 2.5-mile oval, posting a 10-mile, four-lap average of 220.963 mph that left him vulnerable to being bumped out under the new procedure that limits the number of qualifiers during each of the first three days of time trials to 11.

He spent a nervous couple of hours before Jon Herb, who finished 27th in 2001 in his only Indy start, knocked Unser out of the field with a run of 221.070 just 30 minutes from the end of the six-hour session.

Herb was then bounced out of the field for the second time Sunday by 1996 Indy winner Buddy Lazier, who bumped his way back into the lineup by improving his speed from 220.452 to 221.380.

That left Lazier “on the bubble” as the 22nd and slowest driver in the partial lineup. Jaques Lazier got out just before the final gun in an effort to bump his older brother, but pulled back onto pit road after one lap at just over 220.

Unser and the rest of the non-qualified drivers will have track time from Wednesday through Friday to work on finding enough speed to make the 33-car field.

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Felipe Massa won the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona for his second consecutive Formula One victory, and Lewis Hamilton finished second to take sole possession of first place in the driver standings. Fernando Alonso, the two-time defending world champion and last year’s winner in Barcelona, was third.

Massa, driving a Ferrari, led from the start and finished in 1 hour 31 minutes 36.230 seconds -- 6.7 seconds ahead of Hamilton, the first rookie driver to reach the podium in his first four races. Alonso finished 17.4 seconds behind Massa.

Hamilton, driving for McLaren, is racing in F1 for the first time this season. The 22-year-old passed team founder Bruce McLaren to become the youngest driver to lead the standings with 30 points. Alonso is second with 28 points, and Massa is third with 27.