Honda Takes Top Three in Wet Final Practice

The DW12 chassis has seen it's fair share of wet weather driving in 2014 and third practice from the IMS road course was another session in the puddles.

Simon Pagenaud led a Honda 1-2-3 with the fastest lap being a 83.1597. Jack Hawksworth was 0.0135 seconds back in second with James Hinchcliffe round out the top three. Will Power was the top Chevrolet in fourth. He had a quick spin off course but had no damage. Carlos Muñoz rounded out the top five.

Sébastien Bourdais was sixth in the wet session. He and Scott Dixon, who was seventh in final practice where the fastest in each of the Friday sessions. Sebastián Saavedra was eighth with Helio Castroneves in ninth. Josef Newgarden rounded out the top ten.

Mikhail Aleshin was eleventh but ended the session after spinning and stalling on Hulman Blvd. Juan Pablo Montoya was twelfth with Ryan Hunter-Reay in thirteenth. Tony Kanaan was fourteenth, sandwiched between his former Andretti Autosport teammates as Marco Andretti rounded out the top fifteen.

Martin Plowman was sixteenth in the wet session with fellow British driver Justin Wilson seventeenth. Carlos Huertas was immediately behind his Dale Coyne teammate in eighteenth. One second covered the top eighteen times. Franck Montagny was nineteenth with Mike Conway rounding out the top twenty.

Takuma Sato was twenty-first and Ryan Briscoe was twenty-second. Briscoe caused a red flag after he slid off course at turn five. Graham Rahal was twenty-third with his former teammate Charlie Kimball twenty-fourth and his current teammate Oriol Servià rounding out the field in twenty-fifth. The field was covered by 1.7902 seconds.

Should these times carry over to qualifying, here are the drivers that will advance to round two.

Group One: Pagenaud, Power, Hinchcliffe, Muñoz, Saavedra, Castroneves. Not advancing: Newgarden, Hunter-Reay, Andretti, Huertas, Montagny, Kimball.
Group Two: Hawksworth, Bourdais, Dixon, Aleshin, Montoya, Kanaan. Not advancing: Plowman, Wilson, Conway, Sato, Briscoe, Rahal, Servià.

Qualifying will take place at 2:00 p.m. ET.