Carlos Munoz becomes the first to top 230mph in Wednesday practice

INDIANAPOLIS - 32 cars posted a time at IMS today as practice continues for the Indianapolis 500. The fastest of them all was the 23-year-old Colombian, Carlos Munoz. The Andretti Autosport Honda driver topped the charts at 230.121mph, the quickest lap of the month.

Townsend Bell put up the second-best time at 228.969mph, just ahead of Tony Kanaan at 228.172mph. They, along James Davison, are the only four drivers to breach the 228mph barrier so far.

Two accidents

This day of fast speeds was not without big incidents, unfortunately. Helio Castroneves backed his No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet into the outside wall of turn one, going airborne. The car flipped over and landed upside down before turning back over on all fours (VIDEO). Thankfully, James Hinchcliffe and Sebastian Saavedra were able to avoid the car. Castroneves emerged from the wreckage okay and returned to the track with ten minutes remaining in the day.

In the final hour of practice, Pippa Mann got out of the groove while following Marco Andretti in the fourth corner, sliding sideways and backwards into the inside barrier before hitting the end of the pit wall. The second impact sent the car spinning violently before striking the outside wall (VIDEO). She was also okay.

Takuma Sato pulled to the side of the track with issues towards the very end of the session that saw a close-call with Stefano Coletti getting high, but he managed to keep it out of the wall.

Simona de Silvestro, who saw her car burn after a fuel leak yesterday (VIDEO), did not take part in today's action as her No. 29 Andretti Autorsport Honda is repaird. Buddy Lazier has yet to make a lap in practice this week, but it is believed we will see him tomorrow. Sebastien Bourdais also made five laps in his teammate Bryan Clauson's car.