Indy 500: Kanaan fastest in Saturday morning practice at 233mph

Kanaan, who says he will retire after next Sunday's race, lapped the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in 38.6223s - a speed of 233.026mph - in his Chevrolet-powered car.

Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou topped the four-lap average speeds – which is how qualifying is decided – at 232.713mph, after taking a new Honda engine overnight along with team-mate Scott Dixon.

The field was split in two for a pair of 30-minute sessions, with five cars running in the opener. They were topped by Kanaan at 233.026mph, ahead of team-mate Alexander Rossi on 232.904mph, whose four-lap run of 232.418mph was also just a tick slower than Kanaan's 232.440mph.

"It's a cold morning, the track was green, so it was good for us to run," said Kanaan. "I wasn't really happy yesterday and Rossi helped me out, and the goal today is to put it in the top 12."

Palou, who ran in the second session, set the third-quickest time overall at 232.823mph, after both he and Dixon encountered issues with their engines during final runs in Friday's practice.

Dixon set 232.470mph, with a 231.742mph average, and even began a third four-lap run that he ran out of time to complete – turning 19 laps in total to place fifth.

Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Autosport Honda

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

Andretti Autosport's Kyle Kirkwood turned the fourth-fastest speed overall at 232.518mph, putting him ahead of Dixon on the speed charts.

Colton Herta was sixth quickest at 232.355mph for Andretti Autosport, the American admitting: "We were a little slower than we thought we'd be. It's almost like we're getting too much downforce in the cold conditions."

Ed Carpenter Racing's Conor Daly was a disappointed seventh, ahead of Andretti's Devlin DeFrancesco.

Juncos Hollinger Racing's Callum Ilott drove his new chassis for the first time, which was used by team-mate Agustin Canapino in testing here, and he set the ninth fastest lap at 230.126mph.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Jack Harvey also lost a Honda motor on Friday and he turned eight laps, with a fastest speed of just 229.363mph to be slowest of the 10 cars that ran.

"We had a very unfortunate end yesterday, and the goal was to check that the engine was all good," he said.

Qualifying for the Indy 500 starts at 11am local time.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Mph
1	Tony Kanaan	Arrow McLaren	8	38.6223		233.026
2	Alexander Rossi	Arrow McLaren	9	38.6426	0.0203	232.904
3	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	14	38.6560	0.0337	232.823
4	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Autosport	16	38.6906	0.0683	232.615
5	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	19	38.7147	0.0924	232.470
6	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	15	38.7338	0.1115	232.355
7	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	9	38.8873	0.2650	231.438
8	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	7	39.0197	0.3974	230.653
9	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	14	39.1090	0.4867	230.126
10	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	8	39.2391	0.6168	229.363
View full results