18/05/2017
NEWS STORY
Perhaps it was the gusty winds, somewhat reminiscent of last week's conditions at the Circuit de Catalunya, that helped, or maybe he's just feeling a little bit more comfortable; either way, the third day of practice for the Indy 500 saw Fernando Alonso post the fourth best time of the day.
The Spaniard was the only Andretti Autosport driver of the six entered to turn a lap at speed, the 35-year-old completing just 39 laps on his way to posting a best speed of 219.533 mph that put him fourth behind Ed Carpenter, Scott Dixon and JR Hildebrand.
"It was tricky so very little running for the big guys," he said. "But for me any condition is a good lesson.
"Today was about that, a lesson about how to drive with strong winds and how to set up the car corner to corner. Everything was according to plan.
"The team, I think, used those runs also to test something on the back end, the engine, for tuning, and something like that, so I think it was a productive day as well."
There are two more days of practice before qualifying for next weekend's race gets underway on Saturday.