What happened in crucial ‘Fast Friday’ Indy 500 practice

Scott Dixon, his Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Marcus Ericsson and Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta all starred in what is the most important practice session of the Indy 500.

‘Fast Friday’ practice is the session in which drivers receive the higher level of qualifying boost for the first time, and gives the clearest picture of the week as to who is in contention for pole position.

With set-up depending on temperature and wind direction as well as finalising downforce levels and perfecting gear ratios, failure in any one of these areas can be the difference between reaching Sunday’s pole shootout or being one of the cars fighting to make the field at all.

Little attention is paid to single laps in this session – all of the focus is on four-lap qualifying simulations.

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Top four-lap average times
1 Ericsson 231.949mph
2 Herta 231.726mph
3 O’Ward 231.522mph
4 Rossi 230.998mph
5 Wilson 230.844mph

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Drivers immediately went out to get experience of the current car – which has small aero upgrades this year compared to last – in cooler conditions.

In the first two hours of the session where these conditions were prevalent, Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay (below) was fastest, with Chevrolet power, ahead of the Honda-propelled Dixon and Ed Jones, of Dale Coyne.

However, by the end of the day VeeKay’s four-lap average was good enough for only 10th as late afternoon/evening conditions – plus more time on track for teams to perfect set-ups – yielded improved times.

It was Ganassi’s Marcus Ericsson who finished the day with a 231.949mph session-leading four-lap average – although that came with a big tow which no doubt improved his speed.

Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta was second with a late improvement to a slightly more representative 231.726mph, which certainly came with less of a tow than Ericsson’s had.

Pato O’Ward was the top Chevrolet runner, with the reigning event rookie of the year going third-fastest inside the last hour, including a 240mph entry into Turn 3 as the Arrow McLaren SP team appeared to improve the car every run.

REPLAY: That's 240 MPH going into Turn 3. @PatricioOWard giving us a wild ride around @IMS.

📺: @PeacockTV
📲: INDYCAR Mobile – https://t.co/vyuISIgHnX#INDYCAR // #INDY500 pic.twitter.com/8fG8t8U0Gc

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 21, 2021

Herta’s team-mate Alexander Rossi set the best time on the no-tow ranking and was fourth-fastest ahead of another Andretti car in Stefan Wilson, back after doing basically no racing since his last 500 attempt in 2018 when he came close to winning the event before running out of fuel late on.

Andretti dominated qualifying for the 500 last year, and looks strong again with three cars in the top five.

Reigning winner Takuma Sato was sixth-fastest, having suffered understeer early on, and he beat VeeKay’s team-mate and team owner Ed Carpenter.

Perhaps one of the stories of the day was Santino Ferrucci, who was in hospital this time yesterday owing to a heavy crash that injured his left foot.

REPLAY: A crash in yesterday's practice session hasn't deterred @SantinoFerrucci a bit.

📺: @PeacockTV
📲: INDYCAR Mobile – https://t.co/vyuISIgHnX#INDYCAR // #INDY500 pic.twitter.com/SoNjw5ZJBW

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 21, 2021

Still limping, Ferrucci was cleared to drive and with an hour and a half to go he provided the second fastest four-lap average at the time, stepping out of his car and thanking the crew members of all three Rahal Letterman Lanigan teams as Sato and Graham Rahal’s crew helped Ferrucci’s mechanics rebuild his car.

By the end of the day he fell to eighth, ahead of Jones and VeeKay.

In the single-lap ranking Dixon – who netted the honour of qualifying first on Saturday via a random draw – was fastest with a 233.302mph lap, and was repeatedly baulked by traffic from completing a representative four-lap run like his team-mates. Behind Dixon, Herta and Ganassi’s Tony Kanaan completed the top three.

In fact, a number of drivers were robbed of late runs as 35 cars attempted to avoid catching a tow from the opposition to ensure a representative idea of where they stand heading into qualifying.

Kanaan headed team-mates Ericsson and Alex Palou in the top five.

On the no-tow rankings behind Rossi, Rahal was second ahead of O’Ward.

Josef Newgarden was the top Penske car in practice as the four-car team repeatedly attempted improvements but repeatedly bailed on four-lap runs, meaning either it is hiding its performance or its struggles from 2020, where Newgarden was its best qualifier in 13th, have continued.

The times below are for the single-lap rankings

Practice 5 Results