Dixon tops Fast Friday at Indianapolis

Scott Dixon has set the pace on the final day of practice before qualifying at the Indianapolis 500.

The New Zealander lapped The Brickyard in a quickest time of 38.5766s on what is known as ‘Fast Friday’, averaging 233.302mph (375.463km/h) in the #9 Chip Ganassi Racing entry.

Hondas, particularly those from the Ganassi camp, dominated Practice 5, while the fastest Team Penske driver was Josef Newgarden in 22nd, two spots ahead of rookie team-mate Scott McLaughlin.

Dixon came out on top at a relatively hefty 0.0858s faster than next-best, Colton Herta, who averaged 232.784mph (374.630km/h) from the #26 Andretti Autosport with Curb-Agajanian car.

By way of comparison, only 0.2972s covered a top 11 which included just the one Chevrolet-powered car, that being the #5 McLaren SP entry steered by Pato O’Ward.

Rounding out the top five were Dixon’s three team-mates, namely Tony Kanaan ahead of Marcus Ericsson and then Alex Palou.

O’Ward was the last driver to average over 232mph on their fastest lap, with seventh through 10th being Alexander Rossi (Andretti Autosport), Takuma Sato (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing), Ed Jones (Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan), and Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport).

Santino Ferrucci (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) was cleared to run on Fast Friday after a crash in Practice 4 saw him hospitalised, and ended up 14th.

Newgarden’s fastest lap was 39.0491s (230.479mph, 370.920km/h) and McLaughlin’s a 39.0600s (230.415mph, 370.817km/h), with Will Power 29th and Simon Pagenaud 30th in the other Team Penske cars.

In terms of a four-lap figure, the metric on which qualifying is decided, Ericsson was best with an average speed of 231.949mph (373.286km/h).

The best non-tow lap speed of the day went to Rossi at an average of 231.597mph (372.719km/h).

There will be another, hour-long practice session tonight (23:30 AEST) before almost six hours of Day 1 Qualifications from 02:00 AEST.

Results: Practice 5