Speed was on the mind of Takuma Sato. (Photo: Luis Torres | The Podium Finish)
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Fast Friday lived up to the hype as fans roaming around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway witness drivers setting speeds that had not been seen since 1996 in terms of single-lap and four-lap average speed.
Leading the blistering fray was none other than Takuma Sato, whose flyer of lap in the opening hour raised some eyebrows when he was the first driver to reach 234 mph when his single-lap speed of 234.753 mph stood up in P1.
Eyebrows would rise even more when Sato all but saved his No. 11 Honda from crashing entering the backstretch.
Certainly, the two-time Indy 500 champion felt good about his single-lap run as only Marco Andretti, Rinus VeeKay and Marcus Ericsson got into Sato’s 234 range, but fell short of surpassing him.
“It was a bit scary,” Sato on his chaotic moment. “Of course, I think at that point the entry is always tricky. With the wind direction like this, push the car going high. You have to be little bit shallow entry because if you try to go late apex, you never get to the apex. You have to be turning already.
“I realized that was a little too shallow, feet away from the apex supposed to be. That’s launching a little bit wrong direction. I already foot off, but then car slides. If it’s qualifying, I probably nail it. But because it is just today, I just back off. It’s always good to find the balance. I think I enjoy the process.”
Sato living up to his mantra, “No Attack, No Chance.” (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
During the final hour, business picked up. Drivers were really pushing it to the absolute limit.
Team Penske’s quiet, yet super consistent no-tow speed translated tremendously in four-lap averages as Josef Newgarden and Will Power set the tone. But again, Chip Ganassi Racing knocked on the door in the final 25 minutes as Marcus Ericsson and Sato dethroned Penske once more at Indianapolis.
In the end, Sato’s four-lap average of 233.413 mph bested everyone and showcased he will definitely be a threat for the pole as Ganassi looks for its third straight 500 pole.
“Entirely impressive with the current package, with HPD (Honda Performance Development). The group of engineering and the team working extremely hard, of course,” said Sato. “Happy to be here. It was my first experience for Chip Ganassi qualify trim car today with high boost. My eyeballs go big first lap in the morning. They give me equipment of same trimming with Scott made last year with a significant speed.
“That’s probably perhaps in the condition maybe too light, so I couldn’t compete a lap. As soon as I had a moment, my team put a few more degrees on the wings. It’s all working together to find the limit, consistency. How you drive the tires is the key with the degradation, the management. I love it. I love it to working through the process. I’d like to say a big thank you to Chip Ganassi Racing give me such a fantastic opportunity. Today is only test day, but nice to see the car working really well.”
The fight for making the top-12 is sure to be spicy with Ganassi, Penske and Andretti showing strong qualifying pace. But the battle of avoiding the Last Row Shootout became the focal point of Fast Friday.
While the top teams of INDYCAR feel good, there are teams who are in high stress mode. Those teams include the single-car Abel Motorsports, driven by RC Enerson, all of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Callum Ilott.
Of those three aforementioned teams, JHR’s No. 77 squad found tremendous trouble and it has been the theme all week, even as far back as last month’s test where Ilott’s car has been described as “evil and dangerous.”
After multiple angsts to get a decent qualifying sim, the team put the dreadful chassis to rest and went with an unideal, but necessary plan of using the tub Agustin Canapino had during testing.
Therefore, the clock begins behind Gasoline Alley with the garage doors shut. The No. 77 hopes this plan bodes well as Ilott’s best single-lap speed was 228.942 mph, the only one who failed to reach the 230 mph barrier.
A long night ahead for Juncos Hollinger Racing. (Photo: Luis Torres | The Podium Finish)
Meanwhile, Canapino’s four-lap sim late in the session was 232.066 mph, good enough for 15th overall. While the rookie may have had an improvement on Friday, Ilott becomes the center of attention and co-owner Ricardo Juncos is aware of the concerns during an IMS Radio interview.
“We had to change the car because no matter what we try on the car, we cannot fix the problem,” said Juncos. “Something’s not right with the chassis, so we have to do the change. It’s gotten to the point that safety is important to us. We’re going to put (Canapino’s) car from the test (on Ilott). It was running perfect with no problem with the car.”
If there’s any good outlooks going into Saturday, Ilott’s team look to have the chassis change in time before Saturday morning’s practice session before hitting the track to making a qualifying run, hoping it will make a difference.
With over 10 minutes to go, RLL Racing’s continuous concerns rose when Jack Harvey’s No. 30 Honda trailed a puff of smoke and lost power, bringing out a caution. Putting a huge dark cloud on Harvey and RLL as a whole as his four-lap sim average was 31st overall at 231.166 mph.
“We’ll be looking for some speed,” said Harvey. “I’m not exactly sure what happened in the end, so we’ll look at the data to dissect what happened and try to fix it.”
The quest of making the top-12 or just be safe of making the 107th Indianapolis 500 begins at 11 a.m. ET on Peacock where it will air the session in its entirety. Live coverage on NBC will go from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET as the grid begins to be puzzled together over the next two days.
Top 10 Average 4-Lap Speed Results: Sato (233.413 mph), Ericsson (233.113), Newgarden (233.086), Power (233.070), VeeKay (232.898), Herta (232.804), Rosenqvist (232.778), Kirkwood (232.616), Rossi (232.535), Dixon (232.451), Palou (232.320)
Top 10 Single Lap Speed Results: Sato (234.753 mph), Andretti (234.202), VeeKay (234.171 mph), Ericsson (234.029), O’Ward (233.796), Newgarden (233.767), Ferrucci (233.758), Kirkwood (233.608), Herta (233.555), Dixon (233.506)
107th Indianapolis 500 Qualifying Drawing Order
- 23 – Ryan Hunter-Reay (W)
- 26 – Colton Herta
- 12 – Will Power (W)
- 06 – Helio Castroneves (W)
- 98 – Marco Andretti
- 8 – Marcus Ericsson (W)
- 45 – Christian Lundgaard
- 7 – Alexander Rossi (W)
- 9 – Scott Dixon (W)
- 60 – Simon Pagenaud (W)
- 55 – Benjamin Pedersen (R)
- 51 – Sting Ray Robb (R)
- 6 – Felix Rosenqvist
- 66 – Tony Kanaan (W)
- 33 – Ed Carpenter
- 50 – RC Enerson (R)
- 30 – Jack Harvey
- 20 – Conor Daly
- 29 – Devlin DeFrancesco
- 15 – Graham Rahal
- 21 – Rinus VeeKay
- 5 – Pato O’Ward
- 77 – Callum Ilott
- 24 – Stefan Wilson
- 11 – Takuma Sato (W)
- 18 – David Malukas
- 14 – Santino Ferrucci
- 10 – Alex Palou
- 28 – Romain Grosjean
- 27 – Kyle Kirkwood
- 44 – Katherine Legge
- 3 – Scott McLaughlin
- 78 – Agustin Canapino (R)
- 2 – Josef Newgarden
