Indianapolis Motor Speedway was humming on Thursday as teams took advantage of a break in the weather to prepare for weekend qualifying for the 25 May Indianapolis 500.

Expected rain failed to materialize, allowing some much needed practice after wet weather washed out qualifying last Sunday and most of Wednesday's practice.

The 11 drivers who qualified cars on Pole Day last Saturday had a chance to work on their race set-ups, while those who will be fighting for the remaining spots in the 33-car field had to prep for this weekend's qualifying as well as race day conditions.

In all, 2628 laps were run in Thursday's session.

Ryan Briscoe was the fastest of the day with a lap of 223.708 miles per hour, running full fuel tank setups.

Team-mate Helio Castroneves of Brazil, a two-time Indy 500 winner, was second-fastest at 223.284mph.

"We are amazed to get this much time in actually," Briscoe said. "Any time we can get during a rainy month like this is a bonus.

"The big thing was the first chance we had to fill the car up with fuel, run the tyres down and see how much consistency we can get out of it and have a feel for what we can do in the race," Briscoe added.

While Briscoe and Castroneves are both safely in the starting lineup, drivers such as Ryan Hunter-Reay and Graham Rahal were bumped out of the field last Saturday and will still be trying to get into the race when qualifications resume on Saturday.

Will Power of Australia was the fastest of the non-qualified drivers, notching the sixth-quickest time of the day.

"Who knows, race day might be like this or qualifying on Saturday may be like this," Power said. "So it was good to go out there and run."

AFP