Graham Rahal and Will Power to put directly before the Fast Friday

The weather forecasts predict that the next three days in Indianapolis will come accompanied with clouds and possible rain moderate, all coinciding with the Fast Friday, Bump Day and Pole Day. So, this Thursday, the last day with a forecast fully sunny, saw the 35 drivers who are struggling to run the Indianapolis 500 to carry out a shooting very intensive, although somewhat less than the previous day, and with objectives divided between those who have already figured out how to run and look for how to qualify, or those who rushed this last day without increasing the turbo to find race pace.

In that sense, the differences, or the lack of them, between the fastest time and the best without slipstream of each pilot were very interesting. Only one rider (Jay Howard) had a better time without rebufos slower than that of Graham Rahal, but that was not the goal of the american pilot, who has dramatically improved his shooting in traffic and with rebufos, and left it at the table, the best average of the day, a return of 226.047 miles per hour. Rahal, one of the three riders who gave more than 100 laps next to Hélio Castroneves and Zach Veach, topped by a bit of a Tony Kanaan that is giving very good sensations.

The above-mentioned disparity makes only three riders in the top 10 all were kept in that area in laps without consequence is referred to, and two of them follow the trend of previous days. The most complete in this sense, to the surprise of few, was Ed Carpenter, the sixth best without rebufos, skimming the 223 mile per hour average on his best lap, and the fourth best of the day, just behind a Marco Andretti that, without the lead this time, remains the strong man of his team in the times tables, although not the fastest without consequence. The “buddy” Carpenter, Spencer Pigot, was the third in discord, in the lower part of the top 10 in both categories.

For any of Dreyer & Reinbold, the day presented a face and a cross. The face was the fifth place of Sage Karam, one of the drivers with the best point of the grill, and the cross was the action most discreet J. R. Hildebrand, culminating with the first incident notable of the week during Happy Hour, when there remained only 20 minutes. The american pilot sufró some understeer on the exit of turn 3, just enough to lightly tap the back end of the barrier SAFER, first, and the wall of the intermediate, after, staying stopped in the exit of turn 4 with damage to its wing and suspension front.

Penske returned to the top 10 places with Josef Newgarden and Castroneves, but where it really shone was on the lap without slipstream. There, Will Power obtained the best average of the day with a lap of 223.971 mph, while Simon Pagenaud got the fourth best time, by over 223 mph. His time trial was not enough to beat the a Charlie Kimball that he commanded during a large part of the day in this table, focusing the rest of her day in simulations of career as many other drivers. Coyne also divided duties in this respect, with a remarkable seventh position Zachary Claman DeMelo and the second Sebastien Bourdais without rebufos, very close to Power, displaying his comfort with the setting of classification.

Chevrolet returned to enjoy a presence larger with seven cars in the top 10, finished off by Gabby Chaves, although in the table without rebufos the cast was balanced with the Honda. It influenced the work of the other two struts Andretti, Alexander Rossi (5th), and Ryan Hunter-Reay (8th), in addition to the Robert Wickens (7th). For his part, Oriol Servià returned to split their day, starting with a solid time without rebufos that allowed him to lead the session for several minutes, and looking for times with traffic in the second half of the day. Your best record with (223.641 mph) and without slipstream (221.950 mph) we were in an optimal 16th position, in the middle half of the table.

All the data collected until now provide very few clear perspective of who can fight the pole with guarantees and, above all, who may be in danger. Some constants make you think of Pippa Mann, Kyle Kaiser and Conor Daly, who continues to suffer to extract speed out of his car, as the drivers with the worst feelings in the face Saturday, but many others who have offered mixed feelings, as James Davison, Jay Howard or the own Claman DeMelo, could be caught out if the Friday and the conditions of the sabbath does not play to his favor. Morning, the rain allows, the Fast Friday will have a painting overall more complete.

Results of the third day of testing at Indianapolis

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