Pato O’Ward led the way on the overall speed chart on the third day of practice for next weekend’s 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 with a best effort of 228.861mph (368.316kmh) for a 39.3252-second flyer.
The McLaren’s time was two and a half tenths faster than the second-quickest Scott McLaughlin, whose 39.5925 at an average of 227.316 mph (365.83kmh) was four-tenths slower than his table-topping time on Day 2.
“We got a really fast tow lap on the board, which was unexpected,” O’Ward said.
“I’m happy with my car. We did race runs. We did qualifying runs. Obviously, it doesn’t necessarily translate perfectly to when the boosts come up just because the speed is so different. But tomorrow if it does rain out, at least we got a bit of a feeling of what the car is tending to want to do on a bit more trim level.”
Reigning IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou was third quickest, 0.0699 behind the Kiwi and 0.0152 ahead of fourth fastest Colton Herta, who continues to show great speed in the leadup to IndyCar’s flagship event.
2023 Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden completed the top five, ahead of Marco Andretti and fastest rookie Linus Lundqvist.
New Zealand’s Scott Dixon was tenth with a best of 39.8872 seconds, while Marcus Armstrong, making his oval debut in the Indy 500, was 15th.
British Kiwi rookie Tom Blomqvist was the second busiest driver of the day, completing 85 laps to go 29th quickest.
The eight-hour session was halted for 68 minutes late in the afternoon and ended 13 minutes early due to rain; the third straight day precipitation has hampered practice.
In between raindrops, all 34 drivers alternated focus between honing car setups for qualifying and the race, combining to turn 1,896 laps.
Two further cautions were issued for separate crashes—the first of the event—involving Swedish drivers Lundqvist and Marcus Ericsson.
Ninety minutes in, Lundqvist made contact at the exit of Turn 2 with his right rear before sliding down the track and making secondary contact with the inside wall on the back straight.
At 3.49 pm, Ericsson spun in Turn 4 and hit the outside barrier before venturing down to end against the pit attenuator with heavy damage.
Both drivers were cleared at the infield medical centre following their impacts.
Conor Daly also experienced a front right failure entering the final 15 minutes but remained in control to limp to pit lane right as the rain started.
The pace will ramp up in Practice 5, with the ‘Fast Friday’ session mainly used for qualifying simulations. Practice 5 begins at 4.00 am NZST and will be shown live on Sky Sport.
Teams return a day later for a shorted Practice 6 at 12.30 am on Sunday, before the first qualifying session at 3.00 am, where the top 12 progress to Monday morning’s top 12 shootout.
On Monday morning, the bottom four of the 34 qualifiers will fight for the remaining three positions on the 33-car grid, while the top 12 reduce to become the Firestone Fast 6, where the pole is decided.
Header Image: Penske Entertainment: Matt Fraver
