Indy 500: Sato tops Fast Friday at 234mph

Sato lapped the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in 38.3382s, a speed of 234.753mph, in his Honda-powered Chip Ganassi Racing car, ahead of Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport) and Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing).

Sato also topped the four-lap average speeds – which is how qualifying is decided – at 233.413mph set in the closing minutes of the session, ahead of CGR team-mate Marcus Ericsson and Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden.

Fast Friday means the BorgWarner turbos common to the Honda and Chevrolet engines were wound up from 1.3-bar boost to 1.5-bar, a level at which they’ll remain until the end of qualifying on Sunday evening. It meant a power boost of up to 100bhp over the previous running.

Weather conditions were bright and sunny, but a strong breeze pushed the cars hard into Turn 3 at over 240mph, although that meant a headwind towards Turn 1.

Kyle Kirkwood set the bar for Andretti Autosport with 232.649mph, going on to set a four-lap average of 231.739mph.

Pato O’Ward took over at the top for Arrow McLaren at 232.710mph but had to bail out on his qualifying run after a moment at Turn 3, after hitting over 243mph on the backstretch. Conor Daly just topped that with 232.723mph for Ed Carpenter Racing.

Sato then stole the show with a lap of 234.753mph before almost brushing the wall at Turn 2 and abandoning his qualifying sim. VeeKay and Felix Rosenqvist (McLaren) jumped to second and third around the same time, suggesting there was an aero benefit of having three fast cars on track together.

Will Power went third for Team Penske in the second hour with an unassisted 233.212mph but, more importantly, his four-lap average was the fastest at that point with an incredibly consistent 232.474mph. His team-mate Scott McLaughlin beat him a little later with 233.347mph, but with a slightly slower average of 232.316mph.

Kirkwood then took the best four-lap average back with 232.616mph and leapt to third on the single-lap speed charts with 233.608mph, before VeeKay beat Kirkwood’s average with 232.898mph, with a 234.171mph fastest lap that was second-only to Sato at the time.

Newgarden then bested VeeKay’s four-lap average with 233.086mph in the final hour. “We had a disastrous first run today but we went away and worked on it,” he said. “We need to nail our runs tomorrow to get into the Sunday show.”

As the clock ticked down, Power backed up Newgarden’s four-lap speed with 233.070mph to go second, also going ahead of VeeKay.

Marco Andretti leapt to second overall with a lap of 234.202mph, while Ericsson briefly topped the four-lap chart with 233.113mph, before Sato beat that late on with a stellar 233.413mph average.

O’Ward produced 233.796mph for fifth overall, just ahead of Newgarden, but struggled on his four-lap run and was only 13^th quickest on that chart.

Santino Ferrucci was seventh overall at 233.758mph for AJ Foyt Racing but had to wave off his qualifying run after two very quick tours.

Qualifying for the Indy 500 starts tomorrow at 11am local time, after another free practice session at 8:30am.

Indy 500 – Practice 5 results