Spaniard continues to impress at the Brickyard; Ex-F1 driver Sebastien Bourdais sets the pace
Saturday 20 May 2017 16:41, UK
Fernando Alonso rounded off an impressive week of practice for the Indianapolis 500 with another fourth place finish.
Friday's running was badly affected by caution periods, with over half of the six-hour practice session lost. Bad weather was a particular issue with a two-hour stoppage due to a lightning storm.
With the teams allowed to turn the engines up further for "Fast Friday", Alonso's average lap speed of 231.827 mph was over 6 mph faster than his fastest lap the previous day. Translated into lap time, Alonso's 38.8220 seconds completion of the 2.5 mile course was over a second quicker than he had managed the previous day.
Alonso was also an impressive fifth on the 'no tow list', suggesting his car is quick not just in traffic, but also on its own which will be crucial when the drivers take to the track by themselves during qualifying. The Spaniard spent the final part of the session working on his low-downforce setup.
However, Alonso didn't feel as if he was going much faster.
"Not really," said the Spaniard when asked if he'd noticed the power difference from the previous day.
"I think at the end of the day when you're driving the car you don't realise if you are six or seven miles [per hour] faster; you always want an extra mile to be able to go faster. Today was obviously a little bit stressful with the rain coming and we tried to fit as many laps as possible in the [early afternoon].
"Yes, we managed to fit another two [qualifying-simulation] runs late in the day. We're quite happy. It was another day of learning those extra speeds and hopefully tomorrow we have a good [qualifying run]."
Former Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Bourdais was quickest on 'Fast Friday' for Dale Coyne Racing with an average lap speed of 233.116 mph - the only man to break through the 233 mph barrier. His time was two tenths of a second quicker than Alonso's.
"There's never a bad day when you're at the front," said Bourdais.
"Definitely happy with the way things turned out. The car felt good. We tried a couple of things and finished the session really happy with the speed and the car balance. Hopefully it stays that way.
Alonso's Andretti Autosport team-mates Takuma Sato and Ryan Hunter-Reay were second and third quickest as Honda power continued to dominate at the Brickyard.
Following Friday practice the random draw was made for the qualifying running order, with McLaren's Zak Brown pulling out number 33 for Alonso's main car and number eight for his backup car.
As for the British contingent, Jay Howard was eighth quickest on Friday (231.225 mph), Max Chilton 18th (230.636 mph), Pippa Mann 21st (230.103 mph) and Jack Harvey 25th (228.426 mph)
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