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Indianapolis 500 practice: Ryan Hunter-Reay leads Wednesday

Ryan Hunter-Reay put Andretti Autosport on top for a second day of Indianapolis 500 practice on Wednesday

As track action resumed after Tuesday's rainout, 2014 Indy 500 winner Hunter-Reay lapped the 2.5-mile Speedway at 228.202mph when running in a pack of cars on lap 11 of his 94.

That put him ahead of team-mate Carlos Munoz's 228.055mph, and buoyed Hunter-Reay after the Honda squad's struggles in practice a year ago.

"Coming off the year we had here last year where I couldn't get the car to do anything I needed it to, it's nice to have be up towards the front," he said.

Hunter-Reay believes it is too early to draw any comparisons between the latest iterations of the Honda and Chevrolet superspeedway aero kits or to predict who is in best shape heading into the weekend's qualifying sessions.

"Once the boost gets turned up, everything changes," he said.

"You have different torque curves in these engines and it'll be all over the place.

"Come Friday, absolutely expect Ganassi, Penske, and Ed Carpenter, these guys all to be up in the mix.

"Hopefully we're still in the mix."

Team Penske driver Will Power was third in a Dallara-Chevrolet at 227.733mph followed by fellow Chevy driver Josef Newgarden - the only frontrunner who got his top speed in Wednesday's final hour of practice.

Gabby Chaves gave Honda three drivers in the top five with a lap at 226.889mph for AJ Foyt Racing.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan rookie Spencer Pigot became the first driver to crash in practice this year.

He went deep into Turn 1 just under two hours into the practice and had a hard impact with the outside wall.

Pigot was checked at the IU Health Infield Emergency Medical Centre, cleared and released.

His Dallara-Honda suffered extensive damage to the left side so he was done for the day. The rookie hopes to return to the track on Thursday or Friday.

Thirty-four driver/car combinations posted times on Wednesday but that was a bit misleading as Schmidt Peterson team-mates James Hinchcliffe and Mikhail Aleshin ran several laps in each other's cars.

Former Formula 1 driver Max Chilton turned the most laps in Wednesday's six-hour session with 125.

WEDNESDAY RESULTS

Pos Driver Team Car Speed Time Laps
1 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 228.202 39.4388s 94
2 Carlos Munoz Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 228.066 39.4623s 110
3 Will Power Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 227.733 39.5200s 62
4 Josef Newgarden Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 226.998 39.6479s 103
5 Gabby Chaves Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 226.889 39.6669s 78
6 Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 226.770 39.6878s 77
7 Townsend Bell Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 226.755 39.6904s 109
8 Sage Karam Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 226.419 39.7494s 91
9 Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 226.327 39.7654s 83
10 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda 226.244 39.7801s 97
11 Sebastien Bourdais KVSH Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 226.227 39.7831s 81
12 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 226.109 39.8038s 101
13 Juan Pablo Montoya Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 225.904 39.8400s 90
14 J.R. Hildebrand Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 225.514 39.9089s 112
15 Alexander Rossi Andretti Herta Dallara/Honda 225.436 39.9226s 95
16 Max Chilton Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 225.365 39.9353s 125
17 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 225.284 39.9495s 76
18 Helio Castroneves Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 225.224 39.9603s 86
19 Tony Kanaan Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 225.194 39.9656s 107
20 Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 224.999 40.0002s 67
21 Alex Tagliani AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Honda 224.830 40.0302s 88
22 Takuma Sato AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Honda 224.696 40.0542s 57
23 Pippa Mann Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 224.191 40.1444s 100
24 Conor Daly Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 223.968 40.1844s 65
25 Spencer Pigot Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda 223.667 40.2384s 39
26 Bryan Clauson Jonathan Byrd's Racing Dallara/Honda 223.383 40.2895s 67
27 Matthew Brabham Team Murray Dallara/Chevrolet 223.306 40.3034s 126
28 James Hinchcliffe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 223.138 40.3337s 81
29 Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 223.121 40.3368s 96
30 Stefan Wilson KVSH Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 222.781 40.3985s 85
31 James Hinchcliffe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 222.719 40.4097s 5
32 Oriol Servia Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 222.373 40.4726s 59
33 Buddy Lazier Lazier Burns Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 220.104 40.8898s 36
34 Jack Hawksworth AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Honda 217.789 41.3244s 31

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