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Indianapolis 500 practice: Jones tops third day cut short by rain

Ed Carpenter Racing Scuderia Corsa driver Ed Jones topped a third day of practice for the Indianapolis 500 cut short by rain and thunderstorms

The final hour and a half of the planned seven hours of running was scrubbed off, ensuring Chevrolet-powered Jones's eighth lap of 37, a 227.843mph effort set in the morning, remained fastest.

That lap was 1.5mph faster than the best set by 2017 Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato in the #30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda, who beat Zach Veach's Andretti Autosport-Honda by 0.6mph.

Sebastien Bourdais' Dale Coyne Racing-run car was fourth ahead of the fastest rookie, Harding Steinbrenner Racing driver Colton Herta.

Sage Karam was the busiest driver of the day in his Dreyer & Reinbold Racing-Chevrolet, turning 86 laps, and finished up just ahead of the continually impressive Juncos Racing-Chevy of Kyle Kaiser, whose car is still without sponsor logos (pictured below).

Spencer Pigot ensured two Carpenter cars finished in the top 10, ahead of Scott Dixon's Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda and Penske's fastest runner, Simon Pagenaud.

Ahead of the Fast Friday final practice day, when cars' turbos are tweaked up to 1.4-bar boost in preparation for qualifying runs on Saturday and Sunday, several drivers carried out low-drag qualifying simulations without the assist of a draft from other cars. IndyCar officially judges a car has a tow if it is within seven seconds of the car in front.

Jones was also fastest in those speed charts, clocking a 224.957mph lap, ahead of Pigot's 224.887mph, Pagenaud's 224.868mph, and Will Power's 224.858mph.

Carlin's Charlie Kimball, Marco Andretti (Andretti-Herta), Sato, Ed Carpenter, the Penske of Josef Newgarden and Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsport's rookie Marcus Ericsson were next up.

Carlin driver Patricio O'Ward crashed in the second hour of running and ended up with the 23rd-fastest lap, setting a best speed of 224.170mph.

After crashing on the second day of practice, two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso did not complete a lap on Thursday as McLaren opted to repair his damaged car rather than build up a back-up.

Thursday practice times

Pos Driver Team Car Speed Time Laps
1 Ed Jones Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 227.843 39.5008s 37
2 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda 226.699 39.7002s 47
3 Zach Veach Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 226.070 39.8107s 58
4 Sebastien Bourdais Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 225.996 39.8238s 53
5 Colton Herta Harding Racing Dallara/Honda 225.458 39.9188s 73
6 Sage Karam Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 225.401 39.9289s 86
7 Kyle Kaiser Juncos Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 225.396 39.9298s 39
8 Spencer Pigot Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 225.335 39.9406s 66
9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 225.300 39.9467s 53
10 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 225.256 39.9545s 40
11 Helio Castroneves Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 225.142 39.9747s 65
12 James Davison Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 225.064 39.9886s 60
13 Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 225.038 39.9933s 50
14 Will Power Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 224.858 40.0252s 49
15 Max Chilton Carlin Dallara/Chevrolet 224.802 40.0353s 42
16 Charlie Kimball Carlin Dallara/Chevrolet 224.797 40.0361s 67
17 Marco Andretti Andretti Herta Dallara/Honda 224.771 40.0408s 41
18 J.R. Hildebrand Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 224.481 40.0924s 47
19 Conor Daly Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 224.480 40.0927s 76
20 Marcus Ericsson Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 224.405 40.1060s 34
21 Josef Newgarden Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 224.343 40.1171s 39
22 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 224.220 40.1391s 50
23 Patricio O'Ward Carlin Dallara/Chevrolet 224.170 40.1481s 24
24 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda 224.133 40.1547s 57
25 James Hinchcliffe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 223.984 40.1814s 31
26 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing Dallara/Honda 223.983 40.1817s 26
27 Pippa Mann Clauson-Marshall Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 223.819 40.2111s 41
28 Oriol Servia Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 223.284 40.3075s 49
29 Jordan King Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda 223.173 40.3274s 43
30 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 223.074 40.3454s 38
31 Matheus Leist AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Chevrolet 222.969 40.3644s 34
32 Tony Kanaan AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Chevrolet 222.831 40.3893s 34
33 Ben Hanley DragonSpeed Dallara/Chevrolet 222.364 40.4742s 67
34 Felix Rosenqvist Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 221.697 40.5960s 41
35 Santino Ferrucci Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 220.457 40.8242s 60

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