Just a few weeks short of the 10th anniversary of his Formula 1 podium finish in the 2004 United States Grand Prix, Takuma Sato was back on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to contest the latest round of the Verizon IndyCar Series.

A ninth-place finish normally wouldn’t be much to shout about, but it represented an excellent recovery for Sato and the AJ Foyt Racing team after a highly dramatic race for the #14 ABC Supply Dallara-Honda.

And if anyone was expecting Taku, plus fellow ex-F1 racers such as Juan Pablo Montoya and Sebastien Bourdais, to have an advantage on the IMS road course, that was to reckon without the host of alterations that have been made to the track.

“They have changed it a lot,” said Sato. “I think they’ve done a good job – it’s still IMS so it has a great atmosphere, but compared to the old Grand Prix circuit the only unchanged corners are Turns 1, 2, 3 and 4, and from Turn 5 onwards it’s completely different. So really, for us it was a brand-new circuit too. They did a great job with the infield, a very smooth surface and　sophisticated FIA-standard kerbs. And there are three big braking points, which makes it a good track for motor racing and the show.

“We had a test – it was a cold day and very quick, so over the course of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis weekend we couldn’t beat those lap times because of hotter temperatures. The test was more or less OK, although we weren’t really satisfied and we were a good half a second off. We had to work really hard to get the speed back, because there are not really any big corners on this track – it’s all about braking and chicanes, so the field is very close. Very similar to Formula 1, you can get the same lap times with higher downforce to make you quicker on the infield, or lower downforce for speed on the main straight.”

With no warm-up scheduled for race morning on Saturday, everything had to be learned in the three free practice sessions, with two on Thursday and one on Friday. “In free practice we struggled a lot,” said Taku. “We couldn’t find a good balance so we were a little off the pace. This time I had a team-mate, Martin Plowman, to work together with, but we still couldn’t find the solution – we divided the two programmes but none of it worked in our favour.

“One thing we hoped for was that one of the set-ups we had planned for the Friday morning session would work, but we had a wet session! That was going to be our last chance to evaluate our test programme, so we had to go straight into qualifying with an unknown car.”

Disappointingly, Sato was eighth in his qualifying group, so he failed to make the top six who would progress to the second segment. “Two and a half tenths difference doesn’t sound much,” he said, “but it makes a big difference in a series as competitive as this. After first qualifying it clouded over very quickly and we had torrential rain – usually good for me and I would be in with a strong chance in the second segment, but we didn’t have a good wet car either!”

The team also had to fix a problem that had surfaced. “We had a little issue with the clutch this weekend,” said Taku. “It was constantly moving the biting point, much more than usual. We had a good look overnight and set the position, but going to the grid I tried to simulate a start but could never get it right. The clutch bite point went, and I just sat there spinning the engine. By the time I got going everyone else was gone, so we need to look into that issue.”

Still, at least it kept Sato safe from harm in the enormous startline accident, which was triggered when poleman Sebastian Saavedra stalled. “I could see five or six cars wide,” he said, “and bits flying over and a huge crash. I tried to avoid the debris, but I must have collected something in my front nose, not from running over it but from it just falling down on my car.”

With the cars running through the pit lane under caution due to the debris and wreckage on the front straight, the team was able to have a look at the car, replace the front wing and send Taku back into the race, now in 19th place.

Soon he was up to 14th when the race went green: “I gained good positions at re-start and into Turn 1, but then I began to feel significant instability on the left-rear. I thought the left-rear had a puncture, possibly because of the debris, but the problem was that the debris had hit the antenna on my car, so the team lost the telemetry and had no information or data on anything. They couldn’t tell me if I had low pressure on the left-rear, and then I had a couple of massive moments so I came into the pits for safety.”

That dropped Sato off the lead lap, but he would regain it when a caution came. The Foyt team knew that those at the front, who had not yet pitted, would need to do so now and this would put the #14 machine back on the lead lap. Once Taku was back in the picture, he was able to make his own stop and join in at the back of the queue.

Another incident, this time between Juan Pablo Montoya and Graham Rahal, inflicted further damage on Sato’s car. “I made an another strong restart, but this one was too exciting!” he said. “I was side by side with someone with the pit wall close, and I could see something flying over. I just couldn’t move my car and all I could do was move my head left, and Montoya’s wing brushed my helmet and went straight into my headrest protector! I knew something had happened and checked everything in my mirrors but couldn’t see anything and just kept going. It was only after the race we saw the headrest had a big hole in it.”
Teams began to go onto different strategies, and thanks to this and some good racing Sato was able to move up to fifth, but his own final stop dropped him to ninth, holding off Tony Kanaan in a fight to the finish.

“It was difficult for us, because with no data we had no fuel-mileage figure. We just decided to stay out, and we saw some guys make their final stop but we thought they would have to stretch their mileage massively. We stopped later and that was worth it, because we were flat-out on our final stint, catching the guys at the front and overtaking a few.”

So, an eventful race but one that was worth decent points. “Considering what happened, it was very encouraging to come back to a top-10 finish,” said Taku.

Of course, the Grand Prix of Indianapolis was a curtain raiser to the Indianapolis 500, and less than 24 hours after the finish of the GP, the week of practice and qualifying began for the ‘Big One’. “It’s hectic but quite exciting,” said Taku, “because we go straight into 500 practice.

“The Indy Grand Prix was a great intro for the 500, and I think the fans enjoyed it too, because there was great overtaking at Turn 1, Turn 7 and Turn 13. I’m very, very looking forward to the 500, especially as there are so many tiny details the guys have been working on. They’ve taken so long to build the car – normally it takes just weeks to build a road-course car but they’ve been working for three months on my primary car for the 500. It’s a piece of beauty and I can’t wait to shake it down!”

INDIANAPOLIS May 10, 2014—“Eventful” was the word that both veteran Takuma Sato and rookie Martin Plowman used to describe the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

That was an understatement.

The race began with a spectacular accident when pole winner Sebastian Saavedra failed to launch in the standing start. Several drivers missed the stalled car but Carlos Munoz hit Saavedra and then Mikhail Aleshin plowed straight into him, sending debris flying everywhere. All drivers escaped injury.

Both Sato and Plowman did masterful jobs avoiding most of the carnage but received damage to their front nose assemblies which were replaced along with tires; Sato’s telemetry was knocked out too. Both drivers received knocks to the helmets from the flying debris – in fact, the debris grazed Sato’s helmet and punched a hole in his headrest!

On the second go round, Sato made a brilliant start picking up about seven spots but he lost them when he thought he had punctured a tire. With no telemetry to confirm air pressure, the crew told him to pit for new tires a lap later.

Both drivers then raced hard, but Sato’s two early stops positioned him to lose a lap about midway through the race. Savvy strategy allowed him to gain the lap back on the full course caution brought about by Plowman on lap 48. Plowman was forced onto the marbles entering Turn 7, went spinning off track and as he re-entered, he hit the curbing which launched him into the air. He landed on Franck Montagny (who wasn’t hurt), and came to a stop on the grass. He was restarted and didn’t lose a lap!
In the two successive pit stops, the crew determined that the car was solid and sent him back into the race.

Employing two different fuel strategies -- Plowman conserving fuel and Sato pitting under green-- both drivers made it back into the top 10. Unfortunately, Plowman’s earlier accident caused a suspension problem which surfaced with four laps to go. He pitted and the crew determined he could finish the race, albeit off pace.

Sato fended off Tony Kanaan for the final 15 laps to finish ninth and climb to 12th in the standings. Plowman came home in 18th.

“What an eventful race!” said Sato. “The initial start was tough because we’ve been having a small issue with the clutch since yesterday. Last night we had a good look at it and tried to solve the problem but there still seems to be an issue so I couldn’t get off the start and I was delayed massively. Maybe that’s why I could avoid the accident on the initial start but some debris knocked out our telemetry and we had to replace the nose because debris lodged in it.

“On the second start I could see a big black chunk flying towards me and I couldn’t move over because there was a car next to me and a wall on the other side,” Sato continued. “But I could see it coming and I tried to move my head but it brushed my helmet and then there was a big hole in my headrest. Very close but very fortunate that I missed that debris. We damaged the right mirror and head protector.

“Then I had what I thought was a puncture but because we lost the telemetry at the start, we couldn’t tell if the pressure was going down. So we had to pit and change the tires and we lost a lot of places. But after that we kept on pushing and were able to make up some positions on the restarts. There were many accidents that happened in front of me but I was able to avoid them. We got our lap back in the end and we got a top 10. It was a tough race but it was really good. A big thanks to the whole ABC Supply team—they did a great job.”

Team Director Larry Foyt said, “It was a long day. It’s funny to be this happy with a P9 but we really needed a top-10. We haven’t had much racing luck this year and it looked like it was going to continue at the start. Nobody gave up, we just kept trying and got our lap back and Takuma did a good job to get into the top 10.

“Martin did a good job too,” Foyt added. “I wasn’t able to focus on much of his race because I was calling the race for Takuma but it looked like he was really moving up. It was a shame that he had the incident but he still did a good job to bring it home.”

Plowman explained his race, saying, "That was a very eventful day for the #41 Alfe Heat Treating Car. “The start of the race I had a very good first stint and I managed to pass three or four cars on track. We had a really good pace on the reds. [The engineers] were telling me I was keeping up with the leaders’ times. Then we pitted for black tires and that was not as good. We had a bit of oversteer but were still doing okay.

“We just caught the yellow [on lap 42] which helped us so we were looking really good on the strategy. But on that restart we got bottled up behind Marco and then got a run on him into Turn 7. A car went on my outside to make it three-wide which pushed me further to the inside. Under braking, I got caught out on the debris on the inside, which locked the rears up instantly, and then I was just a passenger. That was a tough break there. I was just flying through the air thinking, 'This is going to hurt really bad.'

“Luckily we came out of it unscathed. The car was in relatively one piece. We got it started again on the lead lap and were still running in the top 15. We had a chance to come back with a gamble at the end. We decided to pit and go onto red tires early. Normally a stint is 22 laps, but with 28 laps to go we decided to gamble and save fuel. So the last 28 laps were in heavy fuel save mode. A couple of leaders pitted and they came back to pass me because we had to stick to our plan of saving fuel.

“At five laps to go [while running 10th], we were almost clear to race until the end when the rear suspension broke. It was a shame because I think we definitely had a chance to be a top 10 car at the end. We learned a lot and we handled a lot of different situations well. I'm not happy with the result, but it was a fun race and the boss is happy. And if he's happy, I'm happy," Plowman concluded.

Simon Pagenaud entered the history books by winning the inaugural event. He was followed across the line by Ryan Hunter-Reay, Helio Castroneves, Sebastien Bourdais and Charlie Kimball. James Hinchcliffe sustained a concussion when he was hit by debris from a local incident in Turn 7 on lap 57. He must be evaluated further before being cleared to drive.

Practice for the May 25th Indianapolis 500 begins Sunday, May 11th with qualifications set for next weekend.

The Inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis is proving to be full of surprises as the Verizon P1 Award went to the fourth different driver in as many races with Sebastian Saavedra claiming his first pole position. Saavedra earned the pole when Ryan Hunter-Reay lost his two fastest laps with less than a minute to go due to his contact with the wall. Hunter-Reay spun exiting Turn 14 and hit the outside wall on the main straightaway.

Rookie Jack Hawksworth will start second, followed by Hunter-Reay, Simon Pagenaud, Will Power and Scott Dixon. With the Fast 12 and Firestone Fast 6 qualifying sessions running in the rain, Pagenaud holds the new track record due to his 1 minute, 9.67 second lap in the first qualifying group which ran on a dry track.
Takuma Sato will start 16th in the No. 14 ABC Supply Honda (1 minute, 10.28 seconds), while rookie Martin Plowman will start 20th in the No. 41 Alfe Heat Treating Honda (1 minute, 10.45 seconds).

Sato, who won the first Verizon P1 award of the season in St. Petersburg, said, “It was a tough day for us today. With the practice session being wet in the morning, we had no time to try something that we wanted to do after yesterday’s analysis of the car setup because the car requires a different setup in the wet. So we went straight into qualifying with a little bit unknown, but we tried our best but didn’t have the speed. I think we improved the car a bit but we’re struggling with the lap times and the balance. We don’t have a morning warmup so hopefully we can put things together after looking at the qualifying data and have a better run tomorrow.”

Plowman’s first qualifying run was solid, especially considering his lack of experience in the DW12 chassis. Plowman said, "It was a fun but tough first qualifying for us as it was the first time that I've used the Firestone red tires, so I didn't have any time to learn what the limit was of these tires. I felt like we missed the balance of the car a little bit, which hurt me by a couple of tenths. Overall I think to be right on pace with Takuma with no experience is not a bad result, but of course we would both like to be further up the field. I think if we put together all of the small details, we could have been in the top 12, but we'll save that for tomorrow when it really matters."

The 82-lap Grand Prix of Indianapolis will be televised live on ABC-TV tomorrow starting at 3:30 p.m.

Practice for the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis took place under sunny skies and warm temperatures which was great for the Speedway’s opening day. Fans were able to “sample” the beginning of the historic weekend at the Brickyard for free today and many took advantage to do just that.

Drivers Takuma Sato and Martin Plowman had little free time today as they worked together to sort out the No. 14 ABC Supply Honda and the No. 41 Alfe Heat Treating Honda which didn’t appear to enjoy the hot weather as much as the fans.

“The conditions are very different from the open test day so the lap times are significantly down, which shows how we lost grip from the track because of the temperature,” said Sato. “Temperature always affects your balance and mechanical grip as well. You naturally lose downforce because of the density of the air, obviously cooler is faster. There’s a lot of work to be done as we’re struggling with grip and balance today. The good thing is we have two cars here so we’ll get twice the data, so I think we’ll be able to find our best solution for tomorrow.”

Plowman echoed Sato’s thoughts and was close behind him in track times. Sato ran 31 laps today with his best time – one minute, 11.04 seconds--slotting in at 19th overall. Plowman’s best time after 37 laps was one minute, 11.17 seconds which was 21st overall.

“Not where we want to be when you look at how close the times are, it’s ridiculous how this series is so competitive right now,” said Plowman. “One second covers the whole field I think. Small gains will shift you 10 places forward. We’re fighting a general lack of grip. These hotter conditions cause you to lose downforce because the air is hotter, so we’re trying to find the mechanical grip to replace the downforce that we’re losing. It’s not a balance issue, it’s just an overall grip problem.”

Scott Dixon was the quickest of 25 drivers with a time of one minute, 10.46 seconds. Second through fifth were Simon Pagenaud, Sebastien Bourdais, Will Power and Mikhail Aleshin.

The team will have one more practice session before qualifying tomorrow afternoon. However, the prediction is for rain tomorrow with strong thunderstorms threatening to wash out qualifying.

“For me it’ll be a clean slate because I’ve never driven these cars [DW12 chassis] in the rain,” Plowman said. “Normally I like the rain but only when I’m fast in it. I’ve driven in the rain at Le Mans at night with no lights at 2 in the morning so I’ve got a fair bit of experience of driving in the rain, just not in this car. We’ll see how it goes.”

If qualifying is cancelled, the cars will line up according to the entrant’s point standings, which for Sato would be 15th. Plowman, a rookie with no races run this year and no points, would start in the rear along with Franck Montagny, who is also making his first Verizon IndyCar Series start this weekend.

The Grand Prix of Indianapolis will be televised live Saturday afternoon on ABC-TV starting at 3:30 p.m. ET.