Honda dominates ‘Fast Friday’ Indy practice, Andretti on top

Marco Andretti topped the famous Fast Friday practice as IndyCar teams added 40bhp extra to simulate Indianapolis 500 qualifying conditions, and Honda filled 13 of the top 15 places.

With the extra boost, speeds soared and Andretti’s early effort of 233.491mph became the fastest lap turned on Fast Friday since the record-breaking 1996 Indy 500 where Arie Luyendyk set a number of records that still stand, including a 239.260 mph Fast Friday effort.

On his best lap, Andretti reached an incredible 239.795mph at the Turn 1 speedtrap.

The majority of the fastest laps came early in the day, as temperatures rocketed in the afternoon – with the event delayed from May to August for the first time due to the coronavirus pandemic – and meant that late runners suffered higher tyre degradation.

The early attention focused on Fernando Alonso, who crashed at Turn 4 in practice yesterday. His Arrow McLaren SP mechanics stayed up until 1am to fix his car and he got underway two hours into the session.

He ended the day 25th after a late jump in the order, amid the struggles for Chevrolet.

Second place was Conor Daly for Ed Carpenter Racing, but the Chevrolet-powered car’s lap came with a tow, and his best lap without a tow ranked 27th in the order. Qualifying laps are done over a four-lap average in single-car runs, making practice times without tows significant.

Chevrolet’s deficit was obvious as its runners had to use less downforce to reach similar speeds to the Honda-propelled cars.

The Penske drivers suffered particularly as Chevrolet’s top team, with Will Power its best driver in 11th despite significant late improvements for the team. Power declared that his team was just “not fast” in a frank interview.

Power did at least set the sixth best four-lap average run.

The one saving grace of the Penske effort will be its race pace, which didn’t translate into headline-grabbing times on Wednesday and Thursday but left the team buoyant before Friday’s running.

Outside the top 10, AJ Foyt Enterprises’ Charlie Kimball’s pace as significant as he set the 10th best time without a tow – which was the best of the Chevrolets in that ranking.

Behind Daly in the overall times, Chip Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon jumped into the top three late on despite the heat.

A wayward moment at Turn 3 didn’t stop Dixon from setting the second fastest lap without a tow as well, as he chases his second Indy 500 win.

His start to the session was delayed by 45 minutes due to an error in the car’s software input, but once that was righted he headed a good day for the Ganassi outfit with his ex-Formula 1 driver and team-mate Marcus Ericsson in 10th.

Ryan Hunter-Reay made it two Andretti cars in the top four and netted the best lap recorded without a tow. He also scored the best four-lap average time, the format used to decide pole position.

The new Rahal affiliated Citrone Buhl team headed by Indy Racing League race winner Robbie Buhl had a strong day as Spencer Pigot managed the fifth fastest time and the ninth best without a tow.

Ace rookie Alex Palou continued his strong form for Dale Coyne Honda, jumping into the top 10 in the last 40 minutes and ended with the sixth best time. However, his best lap without a tow was 14th.

Behind Palou, 2016 polesitter James Hinchcliffe and 2016 winner Alexander Rossi sandwiched 2017 winner Takuma Sato.

Hinchcliffe topped the first day of practice and set the seventh fastest time on Friday, which was sixth best without a tow. Sato jumped into seventh late on but he was only 11th without a tow.

Rossi had the third best time without a tow, and headed Ericsson to round out the day’s top 10 in times.

Ericsson set the second best four-lap average time and the fifth fastest without a tow, which bodes well for his qualifying run.

Practice 3 Results