Indianapolis 500: Penske's Helio Castroneves tops Thursday practice
Helio Castroneves set the pace on the fifth day of practice for the Indianapolis 500; the Penske driver going to the top with a best average of 227.166mph
Castroneves' time came right at the end of the day to beat the 226.157mph effort set 15 minutes earlier by Ed Carpenter. Both speeds were higher than anything seen during the opening four days of practice.
Will Power, Townsend Bell and Ryan Hunter-Reay completed the top five.
James Davison (KV Racing Technology) and Buddy Lazier (Lazier Partners Racing) made their first on-track appearances for the month, with both drivers completing their mandatory rookie orientation/refresher programmes.
"For me, [shaking off the rust] was much easier than last year when I had never been in the car," said Lazier, who is one of six previous winners in this year's field.
"It feels really good. We have some continuity from last year. We have some of the same guys back. I'm enjoying starting the process.
"I would have liked to start earlier, but I'm enjoying starting the process with our engineers and with the car. Bottom line is that I'm thrilled to be here."
The day also marked the first appearance by James Hinchcliffe, whose recovery from the concussion sustained in last week's race on the IMS road course ended when he got into the car right at the end of the day.
"By Monday, I was feeling [like] myself," he said. "I felt 100 per cent. We knew we needed to take time and make sure."
Aside from a light shower, the rain that hampered the previous two days largely stayed away, allowing the rest of the field to resume their normal preparation schedule.
For many of the pre-race favourites, this meant beginning work on qualifying set-ups.
"It was overcast all day today with the temperature just hovering over 50.F (10.C)," said reigning series champion and 2008 Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon.
"It was cold but we got some good track time in after the engine change [last night].
We mostly worked on aerodynamics today as well as began trimming the cars out for qualifying this weekend."
Pos Driver Team/Engine Speed Time Gap Laps 1. Helio Castroneves Penske/Chevy 227.166 39.6186s 50 2. Ed Carpenter Carpenter/Chevy 226.257 39.7777s +0.1591s 52 3. Will Power Penske/Chevy 225.899 39.8408s +0.2222s 35 4. Townsend Bell KV/Chevy 225.484 39.9142s +0.2956s 42 5. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti/Honda 225.340 39.9396s +0.3210s 99 6. Tony Kanaan Ganassi/Chevy 224.836 40.0292s +0.4106s 90 7. JR Hildebrand Carpenter/Chevy 224.825 40.0311s +0.4125s 88 8. Juan Pablo Montoya Penske/Chevy 224.782 40.0388s +0.4202s 44 9. Kurt Busch Andretti/Honda 224.739 40.0464s +0.4278s 110 10. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt/Honda 224.655 40.0614s +0.4428s 106 11. Sebastien Bourdais KV/Chevy 224.655 40.0614s +0.4428s 71 12. Marco Andretti Andretti/Honda 224.643 40.0636s +0.4450s 49 13. Josef Newgarden Fisher/Honda 224.478 40.0930s +0.4744s 120 14. Ryan Briscoe Ganassi/Chevy 224.371 40.1121s +0.4935s 136 15. Carlos Huertas Coyne/Honda 224.242 40.1353s +0.5167s 95 16. Alex Tagliani Fisher/Honda 224.067 40.1665s +0.5479s 94 17. Sebastian Saavedra KV/Chevy 223.955 40.1867s +0.5681s 80 18. Sage Karam Ganassi/Chevy 223.903 40.1960s +0.5774s 60 19. Takuma Sato Foyt/Honda 223.793 40.2157s +0.5971s 150 20. Scott Dixon Ganassi/Chevy 223.785 40.2172s +0.5986s 52 21. Jacques Villeneuve Schmidt/Honda 223.536 40.2620s +0.6434s 92 22. Martin Plowman Foyt/Honda 223.495 40.2694s +0.6508s 86 23. Justin Wilson Coyne/Honda 223.491 40.2700s +0.6514s 97 24. Graham Rahal Rahal/Honda 223.478 40.2725s +0.6539s 84 25. Pippa Mann Coyne/Honda 223.441 40.2791s +0.6605s 78 26. Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt/Honda 223.374 40.2912s +0.6726s 53 27. Charlie Kimball Ganassi/Chevy 223.344 40.2965s +0.6779s 82 28. EJ Viso Andretti/Honda 222.782 40.3982s +0.7796s 40 29. Carlos Munoz Andretti/Honda 222.522 40.4455s +0.8269s 98 30. Oriol Servia Rahal/Honda 222.131 40.5167s +0.8981s 90 31. Buddy Lazier Lazier/Chevy 218.277 41.2321s +1.6135s 18 32. James Davison KV/Chevy 217.052 41.4648s +1.8462s 63 33. Jack Hawksworth Herta/Honda 1
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