Rd.13 MID-OHIO RACING REPORT BY MARCUS SIMMONS
For a driver whose background came on road courses, it seems odd that it’s on that kind of track where Takuma Sato has had a rough time in recent Verizon IndyCar Series seasons. One such venue is Mid-Ohio where, apart from his first two seasons in 2010-11, he’d struggled for pace. That was put right in the latest instalment of IndyCar 2017-style, where he qualified third and finished fifth in the #26 Andretti Autosport Dallara-Honda to maintain his stay in the upper echelons of the points table.
But the Andretti team, which Sato joined for 2017, has a strong record at the track, and that’s why the squad passed up the pre-race test in favour of running at Watkins Glen, where it was relatively weak on the venue’s return to the IndyCar schedule last year. “There are only so many days available to each team for testing,” explained Taku, “and the team decided to go to Watkins Glen because they had a relatively competitive race at Mid-Ohio last year compared to there. Instead we prepared our stuff in the shop and headed to the race weekend.
“We all know Mid-Ohio is a unique track. The track evolution is really high, so within an hour or two of starting running it’s very different. You have to adjust so much and testing doesn’t necessarily reflect the race weekend.”
Taku didn’t really feature in the leading times in Friday’s two free practice sessions, but that was an illustration of the fact that the team was running through its programme. “I think it was productive,” he pointed out. “We did a lot of different platforms and settings through the four Andretti cars and we were gradually starting to understand what we needed for the weekend.”
Team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay had been quickest in the second session, and then in Saturday morning’s running it was Alexander Rossi leading Sato in an Andretti one-two. The pace was strong: “Ryan went almost to his set-up of last year, I tried something else, Alex tried something else. It seemed to be working pretty good. I wouldn’t think it was a pure reflection of true speed for qualifying, but I enjoyed driving and the car was reacting better.”
Even so, qualifying proved the speed was there. Taku was second only to Simon Pagenaud in his first qualifying segment, just 0.0137 seconds adrift of the reigning champion. He was second again, this time to Graham Rahal, in the next stage. And in the third, he put the #26 third on the grid behind only the Penske duo of Will Power and Josef Newgarden, and top of the Honda runners.
“Street courses I do enjoy a lot because we’re always competitive, but road tracks we struggled for a long time,” said Sato, “but this was like going back to my KV days [the team Taku drove for in 2010-11]. It’s a long time since I felt so positive! We were very strong through the first qualifying group, and made a lot of set-up changes for the second segment. Because I was in the first group in the first segment, the track was very low grip, so we changed springs and a few other things. I was the only Andretti driver in the first group, and you sacrifice learning things in the first group, but you have more time to analyse before the second segment. In the second segment I was very pleased with my qualifying lap, very competitive and happy to get into the Firestone Fast Six. But the two Penske cars were quicker… they must have something! In the Fast Six, you usually have to use red [softer] tyres you used in the first or second segment, and one of the strengths of Penske is they are so good when they reuse the tyres. Sometimes they match the speed from earlier, which you wouldn’t think they could do, and sometimes they are even faster! It’s impressive. I would have loved to have the front row but I think third was a good position for the race and I was happy to be the top Honda qualifier.”
Sato was fourth in the race morning warm-up and “felt comfortable in the car”, and now it was time for the race. The start at Mid-Ohio is unique, because it comes on the straight towards Turn 4 rather than on the pit straight. Taku got close to second-placed Josef Newgarden, but then settled into a long battle to defend third from Rahal during the opening stint, including a big save when Rahal tapped him sideways at Turn 4 on the third lap.
“The start was pretty good although it could have been better,” he said. “I had an overboost problem. We had to change the engine on Saturday so it was not fully optimised for every circumstance. Unfortunately we were not fully tuned for that part so I had overboost at the start, and when you go beyond that the ECU triggers a cut. If it didn’t happen I was probably able to challenge the front-row guys [Will Power and Newgarden], but it was good enough and I was able to hold third.
“I had a battle with Graham which was fun, but he was much faster than me. I held him for 15 laps, and we went side by side probably four times. It was good. We respected each other, we touched a little bit but it was OK in the end. Finally he overtook me when I struggled at high speed at Turn 1, and after that he was gone.”
The first pit stop was badly timed for Sato, and he lost positions to Pagenaud, Hunter-Reay, Rossi, Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon, although a spin for Hunter-Reay in a collision with Rossi moved him back up to eighth. While Pagenaud and Rossi escaped to pursue the leaders, Taku was one of many stuck behind a battle between Dixon and Castroneves through the second stint, and in turn came under pressure from James Hinchcliffe: “Scott was struggling on the red tyres, and Helio and I were on black tyres. Dixie really held us up but I was struggling too, so it wasn’t necessarily that I could be a lot faster. It was tough and we lost quite a big chunk of time. As soon as Dixon came in for his next stop, both Helio and I picked up the pace quite a lot.”
A decent second stop promoted Taku to seventh, although he struggled for pace in the following stint. Then, at the final round of stops, a problem with a delay on the right-front tyre dropped him to eighth behind Hinchcliffe. Fortunately, the only caution of the race – due to an Ed Jones spin – brought the pack together. And, on red tyres, Sato could go racing…
“I was much happier with the car,” he said. “I’d dropped back quite a lot but luckily we had a yellow – we were expecting one much earlier! I had an opportunity to gain back some positions lost at the pit stop. In front there were three cars on black tyres, so there was always the chance because their speed of warming up is slower. So I was very aggressive driving at the restart – great fun! I overtook Hinchcliffe by going around the outside of Turn 5 and being on the inside for Turn 6. On the next lap into Turn 1 I had good speed and overtook Alex under braking for Turn 2, and then passed Helio on the next straight.”
That put Sato fifth, and over the remaining 18 laps he formed the back of the train disputing second – comprising Power, Rahal and Pagenaud – while Newgarden sped away at the front. “Newgarden was gone, but Will and Graham were battling and I tried to catch Pagenaud, but our pace was very similar, so not enough to make any manoeuvre. Qualifying third and finishing fifth was not the best scenario, but the race was a tough one. Hopefully this gives us momentum on the road courses for Watkins Glen and the double-points final round at Sonoma.”
The next race is on the Pocono superspeedway, but the next time on track for Taku is the Watkins Glen test. And before that? A trip to Japan to receive the Prime Minister’s Award in recognition of his Indy 500 win at Shinzo Abe’s official residence on Friday! The Award, chosen by the Prime Minister himself, has existed since 1966 to honour those who have made significant achievements or contributions to Japan and Japanese society, and Sato is only the 33rd to be honoured in such a way. “I am very honoured and grateful to receive the Award!” he said. “I would like to thank all the fans, sponsors, team members and staff who have been supporting me. I will keep working hard in the future to promote motor sports and achieve even bigger results.”
