Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Indianapolis 500: Penske's Helio Castroneves tops Thursday practice

Helio Castroneves set the pace on the fifth day of practice for the Indianapolis 500; the Penske driver going to the top with a best average of 227.166mph

Castroneves' time came right at the end of the day to beat the 226.157mph effort set 15 minutes earlier by Ed Carpenter. Both speeds were higher than anything seen during the opening four days of practice.

Will Power, Townsend Bell and Ryan Hunter-Reay completed the top five.

James Davison (KV Racing Technology) and Buddy Lazier (Lazier Partners Racing) made their first on-track appearances for the month, with both drivers completing their mandatory rookie orientation/refresher programmes.

"For me, [shaking off the rust] was much easier than last year when I had never been in the car," said Lazier, who is one of six previous winners in this year's field.

"It feels really good. We have some continuity from last year. We have some of the same guys back. I'm enjoying starting the process.

"I would have liked to start earlier, but I'm enjoying starting the process with our engineers and with the car. Bottom line is that I'm thrilled to be here."

The day also marked the first appearance by James Hinchcliffe, whose recovery from the concussion sustained in last week's race on the IMS road course ended when he got into the car right at the end of the day.

"By Monday, I was feeling [like] myself," he said. "I felt 100 per cent. We knew we needed to take time and make sure."

Aside from a light shower, the rain that hampered the previous two days largely stayed away, allowing the rest of the field to resume their normal preparation schedule.

For many of the pre-race favourites, this meant beginning work on qualifying set-ups.

"It was overcast all day today with the temperature just hovering over 50.F (10.C)," said reigning series champion and 2008 Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon.

"It was cold but we got some good track time in after the engine change [last night].

We mostly worked on aerodynamics today as well as began trimming the cars out for qualifying this weekend."

Pos  Driver              Team/Engine      Speed    Time      Gap       Laps
 1.  Helio Castroneves   Penske/Chevy     227.166  39.6186s            50
 2.  Ed Carpenter        Carpenter/Chevy  226.257  39.7777s  +0.1591s  52
 3.  Will Power          Penske/Chevy     225.899  39.8408s  +0.2222s  35
 4.  Townsend Bell       KV/Chevy         225.484  39.9142s  +0.2956s  42
 5.  Ryan Hunter-Reay    Andretti/Honda   225.340  39.9396s  +0.3210s  99
 6.  Tony Kanaan         Ganassi/Chevy    224.836  40.0292s  +0.4106s  90
 7.  JR Hildebrand       Carpenter/Chevy  224.825  40.0311s  +0.4125s  88
 8.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Penske/Chevy     224.782  40.0388s  +0.4202s  44
 9.  Kurt Busch          Andretti/Honda   224.739  40.0464s  +0.4278s  110
10.  Simon Pagenaud      Schmidt/Honda    224.655  40.0614s  +0.4428s  106
11.  Sebastien Bourdais  KV/Chevy         224.655  40.0614s  +0.4428s  71
12.  Marco Andretti      Andretti/Honda   224.643  40.0636s  +0.4450s  49
13.  Josef Newgarden     Fisher/Honda     224.478  40.0930s  +0.4744s  120
14.  Ryan Briscoe        Ganassi/Chevy    224.371  40.1121s  +0.4935s  136
15.  Carlos Huertas      Coyne/Honda      224.242  40.1353s  +0.5167s  95
16.  Alex Tagliani       Fisher/Honda     224.067  40.1665s  +0.5479s  94
17.  Sebastian Saavedra  KV/Chevy         223.955  40.1867s  +0.5681s  80
18.  Sage Karam          Ganassi/Chevy    223.903  40.1960s  +0.5774s  60
19.  Takuma Sato         Foyt/Honda       223.793  40.2157s  +0.5971s  150
20.  Scott Dixon         Ganassi/Chevy    223.785  40.2172s  +0.5986s  52
21.  Jacques Villeneuve  Schmidt/Honda    223.536  40.2620s  +0.6434s  92
22.  Martin Plowman      Foyt/Honda       223.495  40.2694s  +0.6508s  86
23.  Justin Wilson       Coyne/Honda      223.491  40.2700s  +0.6514s  97
24.  Graham Rahal        Rahal/Honda      223.478  40.2725s  +0.6539s  84
25.  Pippa Mann          Coyne/Honda      223.441  40.2791s  +0.6605s  78
26.  Mikhail Aleshin     Schmidt/Honda    223.374  40.2912s  +0.6726s  53
27.  Charlie Kimball     Ganassi/Chevy    223.344  40.2965s  +0.6779s  82
28.  EJ Viso             Andretti/Honda   222.782  40.3982s  +0.7796s  40
29.  Carlos Munoz        Andretti/Honda   222.522  40.4455s  +0.8269s  98
30.  Oriol Servia        Rahal/Honda      222.131  40.5167s  +0.8981s  90
31.  Buddy Lazier        Lazier/Chevy     218.277  41.2321s  +1.6135s  18
32.  James Davison       KV/Chevy         217.052  41.4648s  +1.8462s  63
33.  Jack Hawksworth     Herta/Honda                                   1

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Indianapolis 500: Simon Pagenaud fastest as rain limits running
Next article Jonathan Byrd to run Bryan Clauson in 2015 Indianapolis 500

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe