Indianapolis 500: Josef Newgarden tops Monday practice
Josef Newgarden led the times as Indianapolis 500 practice resumed on Monday, the SFHR driver claiming his place at the top of the speed charts with a best lap of 227.105mph
The slower times were in part a reflection of the switch back to race levels of boost after the engines were turned up by around 40bhp for qualifying over the weekend.
Newgarden's lap was 0.1s quicker than next fastest Juan Pablo Montoya, who tripped the beams at 226.532mph.
"After this qualifying format we had this weekend ... it was just so stressful and tiring, mentally fatiguing this weekend," Newgarden admitted.
"I think everyone felt that way. Everyone I talked to was just stressed to the max from these two days, so that's a good thing.
"You should have that at Indy. It was a little hard getting there today and having to go back out, but we really needed it.
"Honestly we needed it on our team, because we had so much rain last week that it was helpful to have a day where we're able to work on the car before Carb Day [Friday]."
Scott Dixon, Mikhail Aleshin and Tony Kanaan rounded out the top five, and last year's winner Kanaan said that he is pleased with the progress being made with his car in race spec.
"We ran the car in race trim all day, doing long runs and checking on things like setup and fuel mileage," he said.
"One more practice to go on Friday then you have what you have for the race. I think we've made some pretty good gains this week with the cars, and am now I'm 100 per cent focused on the job we have to do on Sunday."
The day was interrupted by a dramatic crash (video below) by Kurt Busch, who got squirrelly into Turn 2, over-corrected, and hit the wall hard.
There was a brief flash of flame as the wreckage spun back to the infield grass, although the NASCAR star was unhurt.
"To me it looked like he over-corrected, like you would more in a NASCAR, because you can slide those a little more," said Newgarden.
"It looked like ... he was chasing it up the wall like he would in a stock car and the thing almost snapped straight and he almost went straight I, but then just ended up hitting it on the side."
Monday's session was the last time that the cars will run before Carb Day on Friday.
Pos Driver Team/Engine Speed 1. Josef Newgarden Fisher/Honda 227.105mph 2. Juan Pablo Montoya Penske/Chevy 226.532mph 3. Scott Dixon Ganassi/Chevy 226.433mph 4. Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt/Honda 226.371mph 5. Tony Kanaan Ganassi/Chevy 226.336mph 6. JR Hildebrand Carpenter/Chevy 226.232mph 7. Will Power Penske/Chevy 226.107mph 8. Sage Karam Ganassi/Chevy 225.929mph 9. Charlie Kimball Ganassi/Chevy 225.846mph 10. Justin Wilson Coyne/Honda 225.771mph 11. Marco Andretti Andretti/Honda 225.769mph 12. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti/Honda 225.719mph 13. Helio Castroneves Penske/Chevy 225.638mph 14. Kurt Busch Andretti/Honda 225.623mph 15. James Hinchcliffe Andretti/Honda 225.255mph 16. Ryan Briscoe Ganassi/Chevy 225.151mph 17. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt/Honda 224.909mph 18. Martin Plowman Foyt/Honda 224.855mph 19. Carlos Munoz Andretti/Honda 224.54 mph 20. Ed Carpenter Carpenter/Chevy 224.492mph 21. Alex Tagliani Fisher/Honda 224.387mph 22. Sebastien Bourdais KV/Chevy 224.359mph 23. James Davison KV/Chevy 224.330mph 24. Jacques Villeneuve Schmidt/Honda 224.029mph 25. Townsend Bell KV/Chevy 223.617mph 26. Carlos Huertas Coyne/Honda 223.495mph 27. Pippa Mann Coyne/Honda 223.073mph 28. Buddy Lazier Lazier/Chevy 222.961mph 29. Takuma Sato Foyt/Honda 222.833mph 30. Graham Rahal Rahal/Honda 222.773mph 31. Jack Hawksworth Herta/Honda 222.602mph 32. Sebastian Saavedra KV/Chevy 222.480mph 33. Oriol Servia Rahal/Honda 221.272mph
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