Hunter-Reay Paces Honda Effort as Indianapolis 500 Practice Continues

Hunter-Reay Paces Honda Effort as Indianapolis 500 Practice Continues
• Ryan Hunter-Reay runs fourth overall on warm, windy day of practice
• Fernando Alonso completes field-high 117 laps
• Second of five practice days prior to Indianapolis 500 qualifying

SPEEDWAY, Ind., (May 16, 2017) – Practice continued Tuesday under warm and gusty conditions at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as Honda drivers and teams focused on preparations for the May 28 Indianapolis 500.

Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay led the way for Honda in Tuesday’s six-hour practice session, posting the fourth-fastest speed in an incident-free day. Teammate Takuma Sato ended the day sixth, with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ Mikhail Aleshin taking the checkers seventh on the speed chart.

Two-time Formula One World Champion and McLaren Honda driver Fernando Alonso recorded the most laps of the 33 driver/car combinations in this year’s field, running 177 laps, just over half a race distance, today. Meanwhile, Dale Coyne Racing’s Ed Jones was fastest of the four rookies, ending the day 15th overall at 222.251 mph.

Practice activities continue through Friday, with qualifying action to set the field of 33 on the historic 2.5-mile oval scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

Ed Jones (#19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda) led the rookie field Tuesday in practice: “The day started off quite difficult. There were a few changes to the car that we had to make to adjust to certain things. It took a bit longer than we expected, but once we got up to speed we did a lot of traffic running. I learned a massive amount today and felt really comfortable towards the end when we were able to start passing a few cars. I think the first two days have been solid, as well as they could have gone, and I’m happy with the progress were making.”