Jay Howard has set the fastest time of this year’s Indianapolis 500 program thus far, while Fernando Alonso finished Practice 4 just 0.2s slower in fourth.
Howard laid down a 39.6924s (226.744mph, 364.909km/h) on his ninth lap of the day in his Schmidt Peterson Honda, a time which stood up for the balance of the six-hour session.
The lap was strongly aided by a tow, the Briton finishing the day 24th in the non-tow rankings.
Ryan Hunter-Reay had been fastest to that point, likewise with his ninth lap, and the Andretti Autosport Honda driver was otherwise unbeaten for the rest of the day.
Hunter-Reay’s team-mates Marco Andretti and Alonso followed.
The Spaniard gained significantly more experience running in traffic, but also finished the day ninth on the non-tow rankings.
Secure your spot today.
Takuma Sato bagged those honours in his Andretti Honda and was ninth outright.
Will Power finished the day 12th in car #12.
His Team Penske Chevrolet team-mate Josef Newgarden was good enough for fifth fastest despite hitting the wall just over an hour into proceedings.
The rear of car #2 stepped out through Turn 1, but Newgarden was able to extricate himself from the car.
“I banged my foot a little bit, so it’s going to be bruised for the next couple of weeks, but I’ll get through that,” he said.
“I just got called into the pits, so I was coming in and I didn’t want to check up too much for the guys behind me and cause a problem.
“It just seemed to get away from me. Until I get to look at everything, I’m not 100 percent sure what caused it. We were having a really good day.”
Practice 5 starts on Saturday morning at 0200 AEST, while qualifying commences early on Sunday morning AEST.
VIDEO: Newgarden hits the wall
Practice 4: Indianapolis 500
| Pos | Driver | C/A/E/T | Time | Diff | Gap | Best lap | Total laps |
| 1 | Howard, Jay | D/H/H/F | 00:39.6924 | 9 | 86 | ||
| 2 | Hunter-Reay, Ryan | D/H/H/F | 00:39.8537 | 0.1613 | 0.1613 | 9 | 79 |
| 3 | Andretti, Marco | D/H/H/F | 00:39.8743 | 0.1819 | 0.0206 | 18 | 77 |
| 4 | Alonso, Fernando (R) | D/H/H/F | 00:39.8902 | 0.1978 | 0.0159 | 74 | 96 |
| 5 | Newgarden, Josef | D/C/C/F | 00:39.9193 | 0.2269 | 0.0291 | 11 | 35 |
| 6 | Karam, Sage | D/C/C/F | 00:39.9671 | 0.2747 | 0.0478 | 2 | 64 |
| 7 | Kimball, Charlie | D/H/H/F | 00:39.9750 | 0.2826 | 0.0079 | 38 | 91 |
| 8 | Servia, Oriol | D/H/H/F | 00:40.0290 | 0.3366 | 0.0540 | 51 | 74 |
| 9 | Sato, Takuma | D/H/H/F | 00:40.0408 | 0.3484 | 0.0118 | 99 | 99 |
| 10 | Bourdais, Sebastien | D/H/H/F | 00:40.0490 | 0.3566 | 0.0082 | 14 | 40 |
| 11 | Aleshin, Mikhail | D/H/H/F | 00:40.0693 | 0.3769 | 0.0203 | 9 | 90 |
| 12 | Power, Will | D/C/C/F | 00:40.0779 | 0.3855 | 0.0086 | 28 | 103 |
| 13 | Rossi, Alexander | D/H/H/F | 00:40.0885 | 0.3961 | 0.0106 | 9 | 72 |
| 14 | Montoya, Juan Pablo | D/C/C/F | 00:40.0942 | 0.4018 | 0.0057 | 6 | 50 |
| 15 | Castroneves, Helio | D/C/C/F | 00:40.1057 | 0.4133 | 0.0115 | 6 | 117 |
| 16 | Dixon, Scott | D/H/H/F | 00:40.1091 | 0.4167 | 0.0034 | 8 | 87 |
| 17 | Rahal, Graham | D/H/H/F | 00:40.1157 | 0.4233 | 0.0066 | 61 | 92 |
| 18 | Jones, Ed (R) | D/H/H/F | 00:40.1193 | 0.4269 | 0.0036 | 61 | 64 |
| 19 | Munoz, Carlos | D/C/C/F | 00:40.1264 | 0.4340 | 0.0071 | 6 | 71 |
| 20 | Carpenter, Ed | D/C/C/F | 00:40.1695 | 0.4771 | 0.0431 | 5 | 68 |
| 21 | Chilton, Max | D/H/H/F | 00:40.2175 | 0.5251 | 0.0480 | 50 | 53 |
| 22 | Hildebrand, JR | D/C/C/F | 00:40.2487 | 0.5563 | 0.0312 | 40 | 72 |
| 23 | Pagenaud, Simon | D/C/C/F | 00:40.2793 | 0.5869 | 0.0306 | 68 | 81 |
| 24 | Kanaan, Tony | D/H/H/F | 00:40.3365 | 0.6441 | 0.0572 | 47 | 58 |
| 25 | Mann, Pippa | D/H/H/F | 00:40.3501 | 0.6577 | 0.0136 | 16 | 54 |
| 26 | Hinchcliffe, James | D/H/H/F | 00:40.4185 | 0.7261 | 0.0684 | 15 | 100 |
| 27 | Daly, Conor | D/C/C/F | 00:40.4277 | 0.7353 | 0.0092 | 6 | 67 |
| 28 | Veach, Zach (R) | D/C/C/F | 00:40.4562 | 0.7638 | 0.0285 | 36 | 37 |
| 29 | Harvey, Jack (R) | D/H/H/F | 00:40.6727 | 0.9803 | 0.2165 | 80 | 92 |
| 30 | Chaves, Gabby | D/C/C/F | 00:40.8411 | 1.1487 | 0.1684 | 71 | 82 |
| 31 | Pigot, Spencer | D/C/C/F | 00:40.8711 | 1.1787 | 0.0300 | 24 | 73 |
| 32 | Saavedra, Sebastian | D/C/C/F | 00:40.9910 | 1.2986 | 0.1199 | 14 | 37 |
| 33 | Lazier, Buddy | D/C/C/F | 17:39.6090 | 16:59.9166 | 16:58.618 | 1 | 1 |
(C)hassis: D=Dallara | (A)erokit: C=Chevy, H=Honda | (E)ngine: C=Chevy, H=Honda | (T)yre: F=Firestone
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