Indy 500: Bourdais leads Fast Friday, Alonso fourth fastest

Dale Coyne Racing’s Bourdais set his time early on, before rain storms disrupted the running, his best effort a 233.116mph lap on his 11^th tour of the session. He was 0.1637s faster than Andretti’s Ryan Hunter-Reay and his teammate Takuma Sato. 

Hunter-Reay set the fastest lap without the aid of a draft, a 231.273mph.

McLaren Andretti Autosport’s Fernando Alonso jumped to fourth, two tenths off Bourdais, with 50 minutes to go, with a lap speed of 231.827mph. In fact he set a very impressive four-lap qualifying sim with all four laps over 231mph, and his no-tow lap speed was fifth best.

The fastest Chevrolet driver was Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya, with fifth fastest on 231.682mph, and the highest no-tow speed for a Chevy driver came from his teammate, Will Power. It was a 230.730mph, around 1.5mph off Hunter-Reay's best, and seventh in the no-tow speeds. 

Spencer Pigot suffered the first heavy crash of the day, slamming into the wall on the exit of Turn 2 in his Juncos Racing-run Chevrolet. He was unhurt, but seemed bewildered as to the cause of the crash.

Zach Veach also crashed late in the day, impacting the wall twice at Turns 1 and 2 in his AJ Foyt Chevrolet. He too was unharmed.

The 33rd and final entrant, Buddy Lazier, who turned an installation lap yesterday, got 30 laps under his wheels today. The 1996 Indy 500 winner was slowest on 219.640mph, achieved without a tow.

Over 2hrs30mins of today's scheduled six-hour practice was lost to rain.