Power rockets to the top in Practice 5 for Indy 500

Australian ace Will Power surged to the quickest time as the pace intensified in practice for the Indianapolis 500 to be run on May 29.

As teams trimmed out their machines in preparation for provisional qualifying, Power unleashed a best lap of 232.67 mph (374.44km/h).

The Team Penske Chevrolet driver’s best lap came with just under one hour of the six-hour session remaining shortly after a rain delay of almost 40 minutes.

The Fast Friday runs saw Josef Newgarden (Ed Carpenter Racing) put in a late flyer of 232.34 (373.91) to be second fastest ahead of Schmidt Peterson’s James Hinchcliffe in 231.97 (373.31).

Andretti Autosport Honda flyer Carlos Munoz registered 231.95 (373.28) to be fourth ahead of Marco Andretti’s 231.82 mph (373.07).

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Of the speeds recorded with no-tow assistance, Townsend Bell was the fastest with a 231.34 (372.30) ahead of Power’s 231.33 (372.28).

Rookie Alex Rossi, whose #98 Andretti-Herta machine was lavished with a last minute sponsorship deal with NAPA, continued to show blistering pace as the top rookie of the field by finishing 10th fastest.

With just over 30 minutes remaining in the session Matt Brabham turned up the pace with his 229.25 (368.94) briefly putting him in the top 20. Brabham ended the session in 24th after completing a total of 57 laps.

“We had some ups and downs throughout the day and some side to sides as well,” Brabham said of a moment he had earlier in the session.

“I think we were being a bit conservative and we’re just working our way through it.

“Everyone’s trimming out and trying for their big qualifying set-ups and we’ve got to do that too, but we’re just slowly dialling out the downforce.”

“We’ve been working through the qualifying simulations with the Pirtek Team Murray team – we had one big moment, but other than that it was all clean sailing.

The top 18 cars were all above the 230 (370) barrier.

Provisional qualifying is scheduled tomorrow from 1am-7.50am (AEST) with the top nine drivers advancing to the Fast 9 pole run-off the following day.

Positions 10-33 will also be set immediately prior to the Fast 9 on Monday morning (AEST).

See below for full results

Rank	Car	Driver Name	C/A/E/T	Time	Speed	Diff	Gap	Best Lap	Total Laps
1	12	Will Power	D/C/C/F	00:38.6810	232.672	–.—-	–.—-	24	32
2	21	Josef Newgarden	D/C/C/F	00:38.7356	232.344	0.0546	0.0546	57	58
3	5	James Hinchcliffe	D/H/H/F	00:38.7978	231.972	0.1168	0.0622	36	37
4	26	Carlos Munoz	D/H/H/F	00:38.8012	231.952	0.1202	0.0034	30	31
5	27	Marco Andretti	D/H/H/F	00:38.8226	231.824	0.1416	0.0214	47	54
6	29	Townsend Bell	D/H/H/F	00:38.8670	231.559	0.1860	0.0444	24	29
7	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	D/H/H/F	00:38.9132	231.284	0.2322	0.0462	40	41
8	19	Gabby Chaves	D/H/H/F	00:38.9381	231.136	0.2571	0.0249	41	43
9	7	Mikhail Aleshin	D/H/H/F	00:38.9502	231.064	0.2692	0.0121	37	41
10	98	Alex Rossi (R)	D/H/H/F	00:38.9867	230.848	0.3057	0.0365	10	59
11	77	Oriol Servia	D/H/H/F	00:39.0020	230.757	0.3210	0.0153	34	35
12	9	Scott Dixon	D/C/C/F	00:39.0514	230.465	0.3704	0.0494	17	29
13	22	Simon Pagenaud	D/C/C/F	00:39.0554	230.442	0.3744	0.0040	18	27
14	6	JR Hildebrand,	D/C/C/F	00:39.0717	230.346	0.3907	0.0163	30	38
15	3	Helio Castroneves	D/C/C/F	00:39.0739	230.333	0.3929	0.0022	25	29
16	20	Ed Carpenter	D/C/C/F	00:39.0907	230.234	0.4097	0.0168	36	47
17	15	Graham Rahal	D/H/H/F	00:39.1067	230.140	0.4257	0.0160	42	46
18	2	Juna Montoya	D/C/C/F	00:39.1217	230.051	0.4407	0.0150	15	17
19	63	Pippa Mann	D/H/H/F	00:39.1444	229.918	0.4634	0.0227	27	30
20	10	Tony Kanaan	D/C/C/F	00:39.1725	229.753	0.4915	0.0281	36	39
21	11	Sebastien Bourdais	D/C/C/F	00:39.1969	229.610	0.5159	0.0244	42	42
22	41	Jack Hawksworth	D/H/H/F	00:39.2046	229.565	0.5236	0.0077	29	35
23	8	Max Chilton(R)	D/C/C/F	00:39.2240	229.451	0.5430	0.0194	39	46
24	61	Matt Brabham (R)	D/C/C/F	00:39.2580	229.253	0.5770	0.0340	56	57
25	18	Conor Daly	D/H/H/F	00:39.2693	229.187	0.5883	0.0113	45	53
26	16	Spencer Pigot(R)	D/H/H/F	00:39.2799	229.125	0.5989	0.0106	62	66
27	14	Takuma Sato	D/H/H/F	00:39.3141	228.926	0.6331	0.0342	37	44
28	42	Charlie Kimball	D/C/C/F	00:39.3241	228.867	0.6431	0.0100	17	26
29	35	Alex Tagliani	D/H/H/F	00:39.3713	228.593	0.6903	0.0472	41	41
30	24	Sage Karam	D/C/C/F	00:39.4707	228.017	0.7897	0.0994	48	50
31	88	Bryan Clauson	D/H/H/F	00:39.5074	227.805	0.8264	0.0367	36	37
32	25	Stefan Wilson(R)	D/C/C/F	00:39.7234	226.567	1.0424	0.2160	9	40
33	4	Buddy Lazier	D/C/C/F	00:39.8789	225.683	1.1979	0.1555	17	47