Patrick Makes Indy 500 History

The American rookie posted the fastest speed recorded so far this month, with a 227.663mph lap, comfortably beating Tony Kanaan's 227.453mph - the previous best, set on Wednesday.

Janet Guthrie was the last women to achieve the same feat, when she topped practice in 1977.

"This team won this race last year and they know the proper ways of working through all of the plans leading up to qualifying," Patrick said at the end of the day.

Kanaan improved on his previous best with a 227.525mph lap, but it wasn't good enough to beat Patrick.

Kosuke Matsuura, Dan Wheldon and Patrick's teammate Vitor Meira, all lapped inside the 227mph bracket and improved on their speeds from Wednesday.

Ganassi driver Darren Manning escaped injury after hitting the wall at Turn Two. The Briton's Panoz Toyota suffered front and rear damage and spun several times before stopping on the apron at the exit of the corner.

Manning said: "We just changed cars, and maybe the feel was just slightly different. I was just on a build-up lap on pretty low downforce and the tires were cold. I tried to get up to speed a bit too fast."

Pos  Car  Driver              Make-Engine        Speed (mph)
 1.   16  Danica Patrick      Panoz-Honda        227.633
 2.   11  Tony Kanaan         Dallara-Honda      227.525
 3.   55  Kosuke Matsuura     Panoz-Honda        227.375
 4.   26  Dan Wheldon         Dallara-Honda      227.114
 5.   17  Vitor Meira         Panoz-Honda        227.037
 6.   27  Dario Franchitti    Dallara-Honda      226.908
 7.   6T  Sam Hornish Jr.     Dallara-Toyota     226.724
 8.    8  Scott Sharp         Panoz-Honda        226.505
 9.   9T  Scott Dixon         Panoz-Toyota       226.183
10.   70  Richie Hearn        Panoz-Chevrolet    225.691
11.    6  Sebastien Bourdais  Panoz-Honda        225.653
12.   4T  Tomas Scheckter     Dallara-Chevrolet  225.476
13.  10T  Darren Manning      Panoz-Toyota       225.431
14.   95  Buddy Lazier        Dallara-Chevrolet  225.238
15.    3  Helio Castroneves   Dallara-Toyota     225.000
16.   36  Bruno Junqueira     Panoz-Honda        224.963
17.    7  Bryan Herta         Dallara-Honda      224.776
18.   33  Ryan Briscoe        Panoz-Toyota       224.343
19.    2  Tomas Enge          Dallara-Chevrolet  223.733
20.    5  Adrian Fernandez    Panoz-Honda        223.172
21.   51  Alex Barron         Dallara-Toyota     220.986
22.   44  Jeff Bucknum        Dallara-Honda      219.937
23.   83  Patrick Carpentier  Dallara-Toyota     219.220
24.   20  Ed Carpenter        Dallara-Toyota     218.817
25.   21  Jaques Lazier       Panoz-Toyota       218.052
26.  20T  Jeff Ward           Dallara-Toyota     217.310
27.  91T  Paul Dana           Dallara-Toyota     216.728
28.   14  A.J. Foyt IV        Dallara-Toyota     216.477
29.   25  Marty Roth          Dallara-Chevrolet  215.227
30.   48  Larry Foyt          Panoz-Toyota       207.863

T = Spare Car