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.

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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

Pos	Num	Driver	C/E/T	Fastest lap	Fastest average (mph)	Split
1	9	Scott Dixon	D/H/F	00:38.5766	233.302
2	26	Colton Herta	D/H/F	00:38.6624	232.784	0.0858
3	48	Tony Kanaan	D/H/F	00:38.6781	232.690	0.1015
4	8	Marcus Ericsson	D/H/F	00:38.7045	232.531	0.1279
5	10	Alex Palou	D/H/F	00:38.7672	232.155	0.1906
6	5	Pato O’Ward	D/C/F	00:38.7874	232.034	0.2108
7	27	Alexander Rossi	D/H/F	00:38.8160	231.863	0.2394
8	30	Takuma Sato	D/H/F	00:38.8604	231.598	0.2838
9	18	Ed Jones	D/H/F	00:38.8653	231.569	0.2887
10	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	D/H/F	00:38.8703	231.539	0.2937
11	15	Graham Rahal	D/H/F	00:38.8738	231.518	0.2972
12	21	Rinus VeeKay	D/C/F	00:38.9063	231.325	0.3297
13	25	Stefan Wilson	D/H/F	00:38.9650	230.977	0.3884
14	45	Santino Ferrucci	D/H/F	00:38.9739	230.924	0.3973
15	20	Ed Carpenter	D/C/F	00:38.9777	230.901	0.4011
16	60	Jack Harvey	D/H/F	00:38.9880	230.840	0.4114
17	29	James Hinchcliffe	D/H/F	00:38.9919	230.817	0.4153
18	51	Pietro Fittipaldi	D/H/F	00:39.0174	230.666	0.4408
19	47	Conor Daly	D/C/F	00:39.0241	230.627	0.4475
20	7	Felix Rosenqvist	D/C/F	00:39.0308	230.587	0.4542
21	06	Helio Castroneves	D/H/F	00:39.0435	230.512	0.4669
22	2	Josef Newgarden	D/C/F	00:39.0491	230.479	0.4725
23	59	Max Chilton	D/C/F	00:39.0501	230.473	0.4735
24	3	Scott McLaughlin	D/C/F	00:39.0600	230.415	0.4834
25	86	Juan Pablo Montoya	D/C/F	00:39.0683	230.366	0.4917
26	98	Marco Andretti	D/H/F	00:39.0735	230.335	0.4969
27	4	Dalton Kellett	D/C/F	00:39.0970	230.197	0.5204
28	1	JR Hildebrand	D/C/F	00:39.1351	229.973	0.5585
29	12	Will Power	D/C/F	00:39.1564	229.847	0.5798
30	22	Simon Pagenaud	D/C/F	00:39.1658	229.792	0.5892
31	24	Sage Karam	D/C/F	00:39.2095	229.536	0.6329
32	16	Simona De Silvestro	D/C/F	00:39.2197	229.477	0.6431
33	14	Sebastien Bourdais	D/C/F	00:39.2284	229.426	0.6518
34	11	Charlie Kimball	D/C/F	00:39.3839	228.520	0.8073
35	75	RC Enerson	D/C/F	00:39.8134	226.055	1.2368