Castroneves sets best lap of month in Pole Day morning practice
Helio Castroneves set out his bid for a fifth Indianapolis 500 pole position by setting the best lap of the month so far in the Pole Day morning practice session
The Penske driver produced a lap of 39.5181 seconds at an average speed of 227.744mph early in the two-hour practice, which saw the field split into two groups for half an hour of running each before all cars were allowed to take to the track for the final hour.
Chevrolet-powered cars filled the top three positions, with Ana Beatriz second in Andretti Autosport and Conquest Racing's joint entry, followed by Castroneves' team-mate Ryan Briscoe.
Honda's leading contenders were Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) and consistently impressive rookie Josef Newgarden (Sarah Fisher Hartman) in sixth, split by Andretti driver James Hinchcliffe.
Qualifying begins at 11am local time, with positions 10 to 24 set during the first five hours of running. The fastest nine drivers then return to the track to shoot for pole position.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Helio Castroneves Penske DW12-Chevy 39.5181s 2. Ana Beatriz Andretti/Conquest DW12-Chevy 39.7901s + 0.2720s 3. Ryan Briscoe Penske DW12-Chevy 39.9914s + 0.3002s 4. Dario Franchitti Ganassi DW12-Honda 39.8640s + 0.3321s 5. James Hinchcliffe Andretti DW12-Chevy 39.8611s + 0.3430s 6. Josef Newgarden Fisher DW12-Honda 39.8796s + 0.3615s 7. JR Hildebrand Panther DW12-Chevy 39.9141s + 0.3960s 8. Graham Rahal Ganassi DW12-Honda 39.9309s + 0.4128s 9. Wade Cunningham Foyt DW12-Honda 39.9337s + 0.4156s 10. Will Power Penske DW12-Chevy 39.9354s + 0.4173s 11. Sebastian Saavedra AFS/Andretti DW12-Chevy 39.9450s + 0.4269s 12. Tony Kanaan KV DW12-Chevy 39.9533s + 0.4352s 13. EJ Viso KV DW12-Chevy 40.0454s + 0.5273s 14. Charlie Kimball Ganassi DW12-Honda 40.1054s + 0.5873s 15. Alex Tagliani Herta DW12-Honda 40.1150s + 0.5969s 16. Scott Dixon Ganassi DW12-Honda 40.1400s + 0.6219s 17. Bryan Clauson Fisher DW12-Honda 40.1403s + 0.6222s 18. Ed Carpenter Carpenter DW12-Chevy 40.1661s + 0.6480s 19. Rubens Barrichello KV DW12-Chevy 40.1670s + 0.6489s 20. James Jakes Dale Coyne DW12-Honda 40.1734s + 0.6553s 21. Mike Conway Foyt DW12-Honda 40.1762s + 0.6581s 22. Sebastien Bourdais Dragon DW12-Chevy 40.1814s + 0.6633s 23. Takuma Sato Rahal DW12-Honda 40.2380s + 0.7199s 24. Katherine Legge Dragon DW12-Chevy 40.2684s + 0.7503s 25. Michel Jourdain Jr Rahal DW12-Honda 40.3716s + 0.8535s 26. Townsend Bell Schmidt DW12-Honda 40.4197s + 0.9016s 27. Oriol Servia Panther/DRR DW12-Chevy 40.5192s + 1.0011s 28. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt DW12-Honda 40.6647s + 1.1466s 29. Justin Wilson Dale Coyne DW12-Honda 40.6655s + 1.1474s 30. Simona de Silvestro HVM DW12-Lotus 41.8724s + 2.3543s
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments