Indianapolis 500 Practice: Marco Andretti leads Monday session, breaks 225 mph

The temperatures remained cool for Indianapolis 500 practice but the speeds did not, as Marco Andretti turned the fastest lap of the month thus far with a 39.982-second lap at 225.100 mph on a 65-degree Monday afternoon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The lap was one of two turned at over 225 mph on the 2.5-mile oval with Helio Castroneves also accomplishing the feat on the second full day of practice.

On what was an unusually busy day on the track for just the third day of practice, 32 driver/car combinations turned laps in preparation for Saturday’s pole day in advance of the 97th Running of the Indianapolis 500.

The only driver not on the track today was Buddy Lazier, who has not turned any laps in his No. 91 Honda so far this month.

Eight cars turned lap speeds in excess of 223 mph and the top 26 were separated by just one second. Despite the colder temperatures, Andretti was able to learn a lot about how his car would work in traffic, something his team hadn’t completely prepared for in last year’s race.

“It helps when you can simulate a mini-race, so we had that luxury and we’ve been taking full advantage of it,” Andretti said. ”(Last year) was the first year for me that the pole was in reach, so I got too fascinated with just how fast would the car go instead of getting the proper car underneath you for the race.

“Everybody’s like, ‘Last year you were really strong in the race,’ and this and that, but the car was a handful in the race and obviously it bit me there in the end,” he said. “So we knew we needed to make some gains and we have so far, but obviously we know how Indy goes. It’s early.”

Andretti had the dominant car early on last year, leading 59 of the first 90 laps before dropping off the pace and smashing the wall on lap 187.

Reigning IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay (224.386 mph) was third, 2012 championship runner-up Will Power (223.784) was fourth and JR Hildebrand (223.624) was fifth. Current championship leader Takuma Sato was sixth (223.363).

“We’ve been trying some changes - some work, some don’t - and that’s all part of testing,” said Hunter-Reay, driver of the No. 1 DHL car. “Had another opportunity to run with the teammates and it’s really good to see all of Andretti Autosport working together that way.”

The 2013 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race is set for May 26. Complete practice times for Monday can be found below (duplicates represent T-cars - team backups):