In final practice, Tony Kanaan is the fastest and Marcus Ericsson is second. Takuma Sato also maintains good performance with 3rd place
Indianapolis Motor SpeedwayThe Indy 500 final practice is customary on Friday, two days before the final. It rained from Thursday night to Friday morning in Indianapolis, where cloudy skies continued to spread in the morning and light rains threatened to hold practices.
However, the weather improved, and drivers were able to secure the driving time safely from 1:00 pm. The temperature was as low as 20-21 degrees Celsius, and 33 cars that participated in the final in slightly humid conditions continued to run for the final race.
The fastest lap in this session was 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan (Chip Ganassi Racing). A veteran from Brazil who also had pole position experience at the Indy500 in 2005 gave the best 39.6227 second = average speed 227.14mph. His qualifying position this year is 6th, so he is well on his way to aiming for his second Indy career win.
It was Marcus Ericsson (Chip Ganassi Racing) who marked the second place at 227.04mph. The Swedish driver, who won his first victory in Detroit last season and won his second career in Nashville. He who qualified 5th of this weekend’s Indy 500 is starting from the middle of the second row in the gride, so it is possible for him to be a champion for first time in the oval race.
Takuma Sato (Dale Coyne Racing with RWR) was third with an average speed of 226.839mph. Sato tried a new setting in the final practice and raised the level of the machine by one. Sato, who got a response, aims for the third win in the Indy 500 from 10th place in qualifying.
Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing), who won the fifth Indy 500 pole position, was fourth at 226.696mph, and former stock car champion Jimmie Johnson (Chip Ganassi Racing), who has also participated in oval races from this season, got in 7th place. Spot entry Marco Andretti (Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco and Curb-Agananian) was also 9th, and Honda drivers were in the top 10 in the final practice.
A driver's meeting, parade, etc. for the fans will be held on Saturday, and the final race will start at 12:45 pm on Sunday, May 29 (Japan time: 1:45 am on 30th).
Our cars have been maintaining the speed since the first practice. I believe everyone knows that. I focused on driving in the traffic today, and I checked on the handling of my car. It’s not that I have many items to try, I spent a peaceful day. To be honest, we did not change anything on our car. It doesn’t matter how fast you drive during the practice. We weren’t trying to be the fastest. But the car is good which led us to be recorded as a fastest lap. That’s all.
I feel that the preparation including little tweaks has been much better than last year without the doubt. I think that the reason why I am in top 5 in many sessions is probably the indication of our car is extremely close to be completed. Weather forecast is telling us that it will be very warm on our final race, but the condition of today’s practice was a run in a low temperature. How much we need to adjust the setting to drive under high temperature will be very crucial, and that will make huge impact on performance during the final race. From my experience, I think that we can do well on that adjustment.
