Indy 500: Ericsson fastest in Thursday practice at 229.6mph

Ericsson lapped the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in 39.1974s, at a speed of 229.607mph in his Honda-powered Chip Ganassi Racing car.

He led fellow Indy 500 victors Scott Dixon (his Ganassi team-mate), Simon Pagenaud (Meyer Shank Racing) and Team Penske’s Will Power in the six-hour session.

Teams started the day in qualifying trim in perfect weather conditions, with Ericsson setting the early pace at 226.930mph, his CGR-Honda running behind a trio of Arrow McLaren Chevys.

McLaren’s Alexander Rossi took P1 for a moment with 227.713mph before another Ganassi driver Alex Palou – who was running behind those four cars – pipped him with 227.718mph.

Ericsson then produced his huge lap of 229.607mph in the tow after 45 minutes, with McLaren’s Pato O’Ward going P2 with 227.734mph.

Teams then focused on race runs for the majority of the afternoon, although Dixon leapt up to P2 on 229.186mph when he got a good tow with a couple of hours remaining. Conor Daly moved to third for Ed Carpenter Racing at 228.215mph, in front of yesterday’s pacesetter Takuma Sato (CGR).

As the final ‘Happy Hour’ unfolded, the cars packed up once more to give strong tows. Pagenaud jumped to P3 with 228.681mph, ahead of Will Power’s 228.577mph – the latter the fastest Chevrolet-powered runner among a Honda-packed top five.

Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet (Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images)

But nobody else was able to get into the 229mph bracket to rival Ganassi’s top two. Colton Herta took fifth place for Andretti Autosport at 228.240mph, ahead of Daly, Sato, O’Ward, Palou and Rossi.

Like yesterday’s session, there were very little incidents to report apart from O’Ward almost getting taken out by RC Enerson (Abel Motorsports), who veered off the track onto the apron at racing speed before Turn 1 and into the pitlane exit, just as the McLaren driver was leaving. Fortunately, no contact was made – but it was reported that Enerson had lost contact with his spotter.

O’Ward said: “I’m sure he didn’t do it on purpose but that was definitely a close one! Exiting pitlane I was not expecting that. He must’ve seen me, and I know these oval cars are difficult to stop, but that could’ve been nasty for sure.”

In the no-tow charts, Ericsson set a late 224.414mph to lead Power (224.283mph) and Santino Ferrucci (AJ Foyt Racing) on 224.277mph.

Practice resumes on Friday in Indy at noon, local time, for another six hours of running. Fast Friday, as it is known, sees the BorgWarner turbos common to the Honda and Chevrolet engines get wound up from 1.3-bar boost to 1.5-bar, a level at which they’ll remain until the end of qualifying on Sunday evening.

P	#	Name	Time (s)	Gap	Interval	Speed (mph)	Engine
1	8	Marcus Ericsson	39.1974	39.1974	--.----	229.607	Honda
2	9	Scott Dixon	39.2694	0.0720	0.0720	229.186	Honda
3	60	Simon Pagenaud	39.3562	0.1588	0.0868	228.681	Honda
4	12	Will Power	39.3740	0.1766	0.0178	228.577	Chevy
5	26	Colton Herta	39.4321	0.2347	0.0581	228.240	Honda
6	20	Conor Daly	39.4365	0.2391	0.0044	228.215	Chevy
7	11	Takuma Sato	39.5052	0.3078	0.0687	227.818	Honda
8	5	Pato O'Ward	39.5198	0.3224	0.0146	227.734	Chevy
9	10	Alex Palou	39.5225	0.3251	0.0027	227.718	Honda
10	7	Alexander Rossi	39.5234	0.3260	0.0009	227.713	Chevy
11	14	Santino Ferrucci	39.5561	0.3587	0.0327	227.525	Chevy
12	15	Graham Rahal	39.6523	0.4549	0.0962	226.973	Honda
13	66	Tony Kanaan	39.6790	0.4816	0.0267	226.820	Chevy
14	27	Kyle Kirkwood	39.7015	0.5041	0.0225	226.692	Honda
15	78	Agustin Canapino	39.7091	0.5117	0.0076	226.648	Chevy
16	6	Felix Rosenqvist	39.7189	0.5215	0.0098	226.592	Chevy
17	98	Marco Andretti	39.7239	0.5265	0.0050	226.564	Honda
18	06	Helio Castroneves	39.7357	0.5383	0.0118	226.497	Honda
19	51	Sting Ray Robb	39.7512	0.5538	0.0155	226.408	Honda
20	2	Josef Newgarden	39.8207	0.6233	0.0695	226.013	Chevy
21	30	Jack Harvey	39.8281	0.6307	0.0074	225.971	Honda
22	23	Ryan Hunter-Reay	39.8317	0.6343	0.0036	225.951	Chevy
23	18	David Malukas	39.8340	0.6366	0.0023	225.938	Honda
24	3	Scott McLaughlin	39.8398	0.6424	0.0058	225.905	Chevy
25	28	Romain Grosjean	39.8433	0.6459	0.0035	225.885	Honda
26	55	Benjamin Pedersen	39.9234	0.7260	0.0801	225.432	Chevy
27	45	Christian Lundgaard	39.9698	0.7724	0.0464	225.170	Honda
28	50	RC Enerson	39.9801	0.7827	0.0103	225.112	Chevy
29	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	39.9913	0.7939	0.0112	225.049	Honda
30	21	Rinus VeeKay	39.9950	0.7976	0.0037	225.028	Chevy
31	33	Ed Carpenter	40.0167	0.8193	0.0217	224.906	Chevy
32	77	Callum Ilott	40.0486	0.8512	0.0319	224.727	Chevy
33	24	Stefan Wilson	40.0582	0.8608	0.0096	224.673	Chevy
34	44	Katherine Legge	40.1905	0.9931	0.1323	223.934	Honda