Castroneves tops Pole Day morning

Helio Castroneves set out his bid for a fifth Indianapolis 500 pole position by setting the best lap of the month so far in the Pole Day morning practice session.

The Penske driver produced a lap of 39.5181 seconds at an average speed of 227.744mph early in the two-hour practice, which saw the field split into two groups for half an hour of running each before all cars were allowed to take to the track for the final hour.

Chevrolet-powered cars filled the top three positions, with Ana Beatriz second in Andretti Autosport and Conquest Racing’s joint entry, followed by Castroneves’ team-mate Ryan Briscoe.

Honda’s leading contenders were Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) and consistently impressive rookie Josef Newgarden (Sarah Fisher Hartman) in sixth, split by Andretti driver James Hinchcliffe.

Qualifying begins at 11am local time, with positions 10 to 24 set during the first five hours of running. The fastest nine drivers then return to the track to shoot for pole position.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                      Time      Gap
  1.  Helio Castroneves    Penske DW12-Chevy             39.5181s
  2.  Ana Beatriz          Andretti/Conquest DW12-Chevy  39.7901s  + 0.2720s
  3.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske DW12-Chevy             39.9914s  + 0.3002s
  4.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi DW12-Honda            39.8640s  + 0.3321s
  5.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti DW12-Chevy           39.8611s  + 0.3430s
  6.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher DW12-Honda             39.8796s  + 0.3615s
  7.  JR Hildebrand        Panther DW12-Chevy            39.9141s  + 0.3960s
  8.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi DW12-Honda            39.9309s  + 0.4128s
  9.  Wade Cunningham      Foyt DW12-Honda               39.9337s  + 0.4156s
 10.  Will Power           Penske DW12-Chevy             39.9354s  + 0.4173s
 11.  Sebastian Saavedra   AFS/Andretti DW12-Chevy       39.9450s  + 0.4269s
 12.  Tony Kanaan          KV DW12-Chevy                 39.9533s  + 0.4352s
 13.  EJ Viso              KV DW12-Chevy                 40.0454s  + 0.5273s
 14.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi DW12-Honda            40.1054s  + 0.5873s
 15.  Alex Tagliani        Herta DW12-Honda              40.1150s  + 0.5969s
 16.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi DW12-Honda            40.1400s  + 0.6219s
 17.  Bryan Clauson        Fisher DW12-Honda             40.1403s  + 0.6222s
 18.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter DW12-Chevy          40.1661s  + 0.6480s
 19.  Rubens Barrichello   KV DW12-Chevy                 40.1670s  + 0.6489s
 20.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne DW12-Honda         40.1734s  + 0.6553s
 21.  Mike Conway          Foyt DW12-Honda               40.1762s  + 0.6581s
 22.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon DW12-Chevy             40.1814s  + 0.6633s
 23.  Takuma Sato          Rahal DW12-Honda              40.2380s  + 0.7199s
 24.  Katherine Legge      Dragon DW12-Chevy             40.2684s  + 0.7503s
 25.  Michel Jourdain Jr   Rahal DW12-Honda              40.3716s  + 0.8535s
 26.  Townsend Bell        Schmidt DW12-Honda            40.4197s  + 0.9016s
 27.  Oriol Servia         Panther/DRR DW12-Chevy        40.5192s  + 1.0011s
 28.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt DW12-Honda            40.6647s  + 1.1466s
 29.  Justin Wilson        Dale Coyne DW12-Honda         40.6655s  + 1.1474s
 30.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM DW12-Lotus                41.8724s  + 2.3543s
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/indycar-news/indycar/castroneves-tops-pole-day-morning

Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr Masahiro Hasemi Bruce Halford