Sage Karam has set the fastest time in the second-last practice session before the 2018 Indianapolis 500 as Robert Wickens hit the wall.
With cars back in race set-up, Karam and Tony Kanaan were the only two drivers to lap Indianapolis Motor Speedway under 40 seconds.
Karam did so early on in the #24 Dreyer & Reinbold Chevrolet with a 39.7419s lap at 226.461mph (364.454km/h) and spent much of the three-hour session in first position.
Kanaan (#14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet) was nearly a quarter of a second slower but far skinnier splits separated the Brazilian from Ryan Hunter-Reay (#28 Andretti Autosport Honda), Charlie Kimball (#23 Carlin Chevrolet), Alexander Rossi (#27 Andretti Autosport Honda), Will Power (#12 Team Penske Chevrolet), and Helio Castroneves (#3 Team Penske Chevrolet).
In 10th was Scott Dixon (#9 Chip Ganassi Honda), 14th went to pole-sitter Ed Carpenter (#20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet), and 30th to James Davison (#33 Foyt w/ Byrd-Hollinger-Belardi Chevrolet).
Wickens came to grief during the first hour, glancing the wall at Turn 2 before his #6 Schmidt Peterson Honda pulled right and made a harder secondary impact on the back straight.
The Canadian rookie was uninjured.
Just an hour of practice remains before the race itself, with the Carb Day session starting on Saturday at 0100 AEST.
Highlights: Practice: Day 7
Results: Practice: Day 7
Pos | Num | Driver | C/E/T | Time | Avg speed (mph) | Total laps |
1 | 24 | Sage Karam | D/C/F | 0:39.7419 | 226.461 | 71 |
2 | 14 | Tony Kanaan | D/C/F | 0:39.9781 | 225.123 | 66 |
3 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | D/H/F | 0:40.0320 | 224.820 | 68 |
4 | 23 | Charlie Kimball | D/C/F | 0:40.0745 | 224.582 | 79 |
5 | 27 | Alexander Rossi | D/H/F | 0:40.0878 | 224.507 | 70 |
6 | 12 | Will Power | D/C/F | 0:40.0989 | 224.445 | 120 |
7 | 3 | Helio Castroneves | D/C/F | 0:40.1126 | 224.368 | 118 |
8 | 98 | Marco Andretti | D/H/F | 0:40.1520 | 224.148 | 56 |
9 | 19 | Zachary Claman DeMelo (R) | D/H/F | 0:40.1623 | 224.091 | 79 |
10 | 9 | Scott Dixon | D/H/F | 0:40.1847 | 223.966 | 101 |
11 | 18 | Sebastien Bourdais | D/H/F | 0:40.2235 | 223.750 | 92 |
12 | 25 | Stefan Wilson | D/H/F | 0:40.2299 | 223.714 | 115 |
13 | 32 | Kyle Kaiser (R) | D/C/F | 0:40.2384 | 223.667 | 72 |
14 | 20 | Ed Carpenter | D/C/F | 0:40.2553 | 223.573 | 100 |
15 | 66 | JR Hildebrand | D/C/F | 0:40.3147 | 223.244 | 93 |
16 | 29 | Carlos Munoz | D/H/F | 0:40.3194 | 223.218 | 109 |
17 | 15 | Graham Rahal | D/H/F | 0:40.3372 | 223.119 | 115 |
18 | 4 | Matheus Leist (R) | D/C/F | 0:40.3652 | 222.964 | 19 |
19 | 13 | Danica Patrick | D/C/F | 0:40.3721 | 222.926 | 69 |
20 | 88 | Gabby Chaves | D/C/F | 0:40.3798 | 222.884 | 51 |
21 | 60 | Jack Harvey | D/H/F | 0:40.3840 | 222.861 | 93 |
22 | 7 | Jay Howard | D/H/F | 0:40.3959 | 222.795 | 100 |
23 | 30 | Takuma Sato | D/H/F | 0:40.4354 | 222.577 | 74 |
24 | 26 | Zach Veach | D/H/F | 0:40.4676 | 222.400 | 54 |
25 | 6 | Robert Wickens (R) | D/H/F | 0:40.4812 | 222.325 | 3 |
26 | 10 | Ed Jones | D/H/F | 0:40.4916 | 222.268 | 98 |
27 | 21 | Spencer Pigot | D/C/F | 0:40.5267 | 222.076 | 81 |
28 | 1 | Josef Newgarden | D/C/F | 0:40.5438 | 221.982 | 87 |
29 | 59 | Max Chilton | D/C/F | 0:40.5580 | 221.904 | 45 |
30 | 33 | James Davison | D/C/F | 0:40.6131 | 221.603 | 45 |
31 | 64 | Oriol Servia | D/H/F | 0:40.6174 | 221.580 | 65 |
32 | 17 | Conor Daly | D/H/F | 0:40.6824 | 221.226 | 60 |
33 | 22 | Simon Pagenaud | D/C/F | 0:40.7421 | 220.902 | 58 |