Lessons one to three focused on car control and performance.
This is where you start to put it into practice.
Qualification is the first chance you get to gain an edge over your competitors.
The better you qualify the more chance you have in the race.
But qualification is not just about where you start on the grid,
you can also use the time to make sure you're comfortable with your car and it's performance.
Before qualification day take one last chance to practice the track and set your car.
You have two configurations, a qualification set up and a racing set up.
When setting up your car for the race you should be thinking long term,
after all you may have two hundred laps to run.
When setting your car for qualification you've only got a few laps to run,
so make your car as fast as you can.
If you can handle it run with as little downforce as possible,
take on just enough fuel to make it around and pump your tires right up.
An over inflated tire will produce a smaller contact patch
so you get less rolling resistance with more speed.
But remember that you have to start the race with the tires you qualified in,
so you don't want them to deteriorate too much.
The day begins with the draw. Drivers are drawn randomly for qualification order.
There's nothing you can do about the outcome so sit tight and hope for a midday qualification run.
As the day progresses the morning qualifiers lay down a nice coat of rubber and the track warms up.
The extra rubber and warmer track will help your car to grip so you can go for a quicker run.
Don't worry if you're drawn first however, you can still get a good position
and even the pole, but qualifying at midday gives you just a slight advantage.
As other drivers attempt qualification their times are posted.
When it's your turn to qualify you start from the pits.
Bring your car up to speed gently and 'feed out' from the warm-up lane onto the track.
Once you pass the start line for the first time your warm-up lap begins.
If you're not happy with the feel of the car on the warm up lap you can come into the pits and have your pit crew adjust your front wing,
Which can compensate for handling problems.
Try adding a bit more front wing to increase downforce and counter an understeering car,
and take off a little wing to decrease the downforce if your car's oversteering too much.
Once your crew have made the adjustments you can start your second, and last, qualification attempt.
If you have any more handling problems you'll have to use your weight jacker.
Add weight to counter understeer and remove weight to alleviate oversteer.
Your pit crew can also repair any minor damage if you've had an incident during your warm up lap.
Be aware though that if you've heavily damaged your car there won't be time to repair it in time for another qualification run,
and you'll have to start from the back of the grid.
That's qualification in a nutshell.
The Indy 500 procedure is a little different,
so before you get the chance to take the qualification test I'm going to briefly run through the Indy 500 qualification.
The qualification procedure is in place to whittle down the massively oversubscribed field of entrants
to just thirty-three fastest cars.
The Indy 500 has an initial qualification period to determine the pole: Pole Day.
And then further sessions to make sure the final thirty-three qualifiers are the fastest: Bump Day.
Before Pole Day the entrants are drawn randomly for qualification order. This determines the line up.
It's your average speed over ten miles, four laps, that determines whether you qualify -
rather than your fastest speed of two laps, as the standard IRL qualification.
Once the available grid spaces are full the bumping can begin.
The slowest driver out of the thirty-three qualifiers is 'on the bubble'.
If another driver that has not yet qualified posts a quicker time
then he or she bumps the slower car from the qualification line up.
Once a driver is bumped, or runs out of attempts, the car he or she is using is out of the Indy 500.
However, this driver may attempt to re-qualify in a new car.
OK time for you to have a go at a normal qualification.
Ease your car out of the pits and onto the track.
Once you pass the start line you've got one warm-up lap to get up to speed and then go for it!
You've got two laps to post your best time. And you need to successfully qualify to pass this test.
Now easy on that throttle pedal, don't spin.
Well you just scraped in there with that time. But you did qualify so you get the bronze.
Mid table not bad, that's a good time. Silver.
Nice going buddy, you took the pole! Gold medal.
That was close, but you're still not fast enough.