If we take Thursday as a yardstick, it would Marcus Ericsson can begin his defense of his win in the 2022 Indianapolis 500 from the first position. Rinus van Kalmthout rode in the lee and got stuck in thirtieth position.
Ericsson set the fastest lap, 39.1974 seconds, at a speed of 369.607 km/h, during the six-hour session under clear skies at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway circuit in the No. 8 Huski Ice Spritz Honda. It was the fastest lap so far in two days of track activity this week, with Ericsson’s teammate and two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato setting the fastest lap on Wednesday at 369.439km/h.
Not only was Ericsson the fastest overall using an aerodynamic slipstream, but he was also the fastest car running alone, with a best lap without a slipstream of 349.414 km/h.
“A very good day for the whole Chip Ganassi team,” said Ericsson. “Yesterday we worked a lot on the racing cars. We were good right away. Today we built on that.”
“I think we made some changes during the night which helped improve my feeling in the car. I was very happy with my race car. The organization did a great job again this year, with very good cars.”
Scott Dixon, winner of the 2008 Indianapolis 500, finished second with a speed of 369.186 km/h in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, putting CGR in the top two positions on the timesheets for the second consecutive day.
Today’s top four drivers are all former “500” champions. Simon Pagenaud, winner in 2019, was third with a speed of 368.681 km/h in the No. 60 AutoNation/SiriusXM Honda from Meyer Shank Racing. Will Power, 2018 winner and current series champion, finished fourth with a speed of 368.577 km/h in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. Power was also second fastest on the “no-tow” list, reaching 349.283 km/h, riding alone on the 4km oval.
Colton Herta rounded out the top five with a speed of 368.240 km/h in the No. 26 Gain bridge Honda from Andretti Autosport with Curb-Agajanian.
All 34 drivers battling for 33 places in the starting grid completed a total of 3,159 laps (12,673.6 km) today in air temperatures reaching around 27 degrees Celsius.
Rank Driver Name Time Speed Diff Total Laps
1 Ericsson, Marcus 00:39.1974 229.607 --.---- 87
2 Dixon, Scott 00:39.2694 229.186 0.0720 84
3 Pagenaud, Simon 00:39.3562 228.681 0.1588 104
4 Power, Will 00:39.3740 228.577 0.1766 85
5 Herta, Colton 00:39.4321 228.24 0.2347 103
6 Daly, Conor 00:39.4365 228.215 0.2391 105
7 Sato, Takuma 00:39.5052 227.818 0.3078 98
8 O'Ward, Pato 00:39.5198 227.734 0.3224 92
9 Palou, Alex 00:39.5225 227.718 0.3251 83
10 Rossi, Alexander 00:39.5234 227.713 0.3260 164
11 Ferrucci, Santino 00:39.5561 227.525 0.3587 57
12 Rahal, Graham 00:39.6523 226.973 0.4549 82
13 Kanaan, Tony 00:39.6790 226.82 0.4816 47
14 Kirkwood, Kyle 00:39.7015 226.692 0.5041 94
15 Canapino, Agustin (R) 00:39.7091 226.648 0.5117 84
16 Rosenqvist, Felix 00:39.7189 226.592 0.5215 153
17 Andretti, Marco 00:39.7239 226.564 0.5265 74
18 Castroneves, Helio 00:39.7357 226.497 0.5383 120
19 Robb, Sting Ray (R) 00:39.7512 226.408 0.5538 102
20 Newgarden, Josef 00:39.8207 226.013 0.6233 90
21 Harvey, Jack 00:39.8281 225.971 0.6307 86
22 Hunter-Reay, Ryan 00:39.8317 225.951 0.6343 54
23 Malukas, David 00:39.8340 225.938 0.6366 164
24 McLaughlin, Scott 00:39.8398 225.905 0.6424 105
25 Grosjean, Romain 00:39.8433 225.885 0.6459 123
26 Pedersen, Benjamin (R) 00:39.9234 225.432 0.7260 63
27 Lundgaard, Christian 00:39.9698 225.17 0.7724 89
28 Enerson, RC (R) 00:39.9801 225.112 0.7827 68
29 DeFrancesco, Devlin 00:39.9913 225.049 0.7939 52
30 VeeKay, Rinus 00:39.9950 225.028 0.7976 128
31 Carpenter, Ed 00:40.0167 224.906 0.8193 112
32 Ilott, Callum 00:40.0486 224.727 0.8512 71
33 Wilson, Stefan 00:40.0582 224.673 0.8608 53
34 Legge, Katherine 00:40.1905 223.934 0.9931 83
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2023-05-19 08:02:00