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 use a qualifying setup earlier than usual in the week of practice, as they had extra tyres 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].”

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 (31^st 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.