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Charles Bradley

Indy 500: Sato tops 229mph to lead Ganassi 1-2 in practice

Sato lapped the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in 39.2261s, a speed of 229.439mph – faster than the quickest lap in regular boost-level practice last year.

The two-time Indy 500 winner led a Ganassi 1-2, ahead of team-mate Scott Dixon, AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci, Alex Palou (CGR), Scott McLaughlin (Penske) and Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta.

Following Tuesday’s washout, today’s running was held in perfect weather conditions. That encouraged teams to run a qualifying setup earlier than usual in the week of practice, as they had extra tires from the rained-out day.

Soon after the green flag waved, Dixon got a double tow off Ganassi-Honda team-mates Marcus Ericsson (the defending race winner) and Palou to reel off a sequence of 228.914mph and 229.174mph inside the first 10 minutes of the six-hour session.

“More [speed] than I expected to be honest, to do a 228 then 229,” said Dixon. “It’s good to see it pulls up strong [in the tow].”

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images)

Palou set a lap of 226.411mph for P2 on his opening run: “The car is pretty fast so far, it’s a good start,” said the 2021 series champion. He would later beat that with 228.720mph.

With 90 minutes to go, Sato leapt to the top with 229.439mph, to lead Dixon and Palou, but admitted “I got a good tow” to do so.

In the final hour, his CGR team-mate Ericsson moved up to fourth at 227.701mph, but Herta then got among the Ganassi cars by taking P4 at 228.057mph with 35 minutes remaining.

Ferrucci left it late in ‘Happy Hour’ at the end of the day to jump up to third with a mighty 228.977mph effort, while McLaughlin grabbed fifth near the end of the session with 228.473mph.

Ryan Hunter-Reay also impressed with Dreyer and Reinbold’s one-off entry, eighth fastest at 227.619mph, ahead of Penske’s Josef Newgarden – who topped the speed trap before Turn 1 at 237.6mph.

Marco Andretti – who claimed his Andretti Autosport car “tried to kill me” earlier in the day – was tenth quickest, ahead of Jack Harvey (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing).

Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus Veekay (31st fastest overall) led the no-tow laps at 223.212mph, ahead of his team boss.

Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda (Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images)

It was a mainly incident-free day, although Graham Rahal brushed the Turn 3 wall with the right-rear corner of his Honda-powered RLL car inside the first hour.

“It was a head-up-rear moment to be honest,” he admitted. “I was looking up at the flags [to judge the wind direction] and then down for what way I wanted to go with the tools and just didn’t leave enough margin. It was just a rookie move.”

Indy 500 newcomers Abel Motorsport completed a refresher program with driver RC Enerson in the morning, the team having missed the open test in April.

Practice resumes on Thursday in Indy at noon, local time, for another six hours of running.

P No Name FTime Diff FSpeed Team Engine
1 11 Takuma Sato 39.2261 39.2261 229.439 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
2 9 Scott Dixon 39.2714 0.0453 229.174 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
3 14 Santino Ferrucci 39.3053 0.0792 228.977 AJ Foyt Enterprises Chevy
4 10 Alex Palou 39.3494 0.1233 228.720 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
5 3 Scott McLaughlin 39.3919 0.1658 228.473 Team Penske Chevy
6 26 Colton Herta 39.4639 0.2378 228.057 Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian Honda
7 8 Marcus Ericsson 39.5256 0.2995 227.701 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
8 23 Ryan Hunter-Reay 39.5397 0.3136 227.619 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevy
9 2 Josef Newgarden 39.5668 0.3407 227.463 Team Penske Chevy
10 98 Marco Andretti 39.6507 0.4246 226.982 Andretti Honda
11 30 Jack Harvey 39.6659 0.4398 226.895 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
12 12 Will Power 39.6710 0.4449 226.866 Team Penske Chevy
13 15 Graham Rahal 39.6973 0.4712 226.716 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
14 20 Conor Daly 39.7333 0.5072 226.510 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy
15 24 Stefan Wilson 39.7728 0.5467 226.285 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevy
16 18 David Malukas 39.7982 0.5721 226.141 Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda
17 60 Simon Pagenaud 39.7988 0.5727 226.137 Meyer Shank Racing Honda
18 21 Rinus VeeKay 39.8524 0.6263 225.833 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy
19 7 Alexander Rossi 39.8929 0.6668 225.604 Arrow McLaren Chevy
20 5 Pato O'Ward 39.9100 0.6839 225.507 Arrow McLaren Chevy
21 55 Benjamin Pedersen 39.9149 0.6888 225.480 AJ Foyt Enterprises Chevy
22 78 Agustin Canapino 39.9242 0.6981 225.427 Juncos Holling Racing Chevy
23 66 Tony Kanaan 39.9528 0.7267 225.266 Arrow McLaren Chevy
24 06 Helio Castroneves 39.9727 0.7466 225.154 Meyer Shank Racing Honda
25 27 Kyle Kirkwood 40.0199 0.7938 224.888 Andretti Autosport Honda
26 51 Sting Ray Robb 40.0340 0.8079 224.809 Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR Honda
27 6 Felix Rosenqvist 40.0435 0.8174 224.756 Arrow McLaren Chevy
28 33 Ed Carpenter 40.0464 0.8203 224.739 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy
29 29 Devlin DeFrancesco 40.0778 0.8517 224.563 Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport Honda
30 28 Romain Grosjean 40.0802 0.8541 224.550 Andretti Autosport Honda
31 44 Katherine Legge 40.0961 0.8700 224.461 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
32 45 Christian Lundgaard 40.1249 0.8988 224.300 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
33 50 RC Enerson 40.1755 0.9494 224.017 Abel Motorsports Chevy
34 77 Callum Ilott 40.2849 1.0588 223.409 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevy
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