Japanese veteran Sato ran only four laps in the morning’s two hour session, unhappy with the aero balance of his car, but shone in the afternoon to top the timesheets at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The 2017 and 2020 Indy winner got a strong tow from several cars on his 63rd of 64 laps and lapped the 2.5-mile oval in 39.311s at an average speed of 228.939mph.
Despite his best effort receiving tow assists, Sato made up most of his speed on the opposition in the turns as his trap speeds were between fourth and fifth quickest.
Opening practice pacesetter Scott Dixon was second fastest on a very promising day for Chip Ganassi Racing, in which all five Honda-powered entries finished in the top nine.
NASCAR legend and IndyCar rookie Jimmie Johnson clocked the third fastest time ahead of Marcus Ericsson in fourth, while reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou was sixth and 2013 Indy winner Tony Kanaan ninth.
Four of the Ganassi cars lay between third and eighth on the no-tow charts.
The top two no-tow speeds came from Ed Carpenter Racing entries of fifth-placed Rinus VeeKay and his three-time Indy pole-winning team owner Ed Carpenter, who was only 29th overall.
Behind Sato's rookie team-mate David Malukas in seventh, Josef Newgarden was quickest of the Team Penske entries in eighth, while the fastest Andretti Autosport driver was 2020 polesitter Marco Andretti in his first IndyCar outing since last year's event. The 2006 runner-up completed the top 10, just shading team-mate Devlin deFrancesco.
In the Indy 500-only Dreyer & Reinbold Motorsport squad, Sage Karam was an excellent third in the morning session behind Dixon and Ericsson, while Santino Ferrucci clocked in the sixth-fastest time (and second-fastest of the no-tow efforts). But the pair had slipped to 23rd and 33rd by the afternoon.
Meanwhile, DragonSpeed with Cusick Motorsports driver Stefan Wilson completed his refresher course at IMS and went on to manage a best average speed of 222.232mph in the 10 laps he completed in FP2.
Wilson's Chevrolet-powered car, which is on loan from AJ Foyt Racing after being raced by Tatiana Calderon in last weekend's Grand Prix of Indianapolis, appeared well-prepared following its conversion from road course to superspeedway spec.
The 33rd and last entry to be announced is largely staffed by DragonSpeed’s IMSA SportsCar Championship LMP2 team, while various equipment has been lent to the team by Andretti Autosport, Juncos Hollinger Racing, and Team Penske.
IndyCar Indianapolis 500 FP2 results
| Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Takuma Sato |  Dale Coyne Racing | 64 | 39.311 | 228.939 | |
| 2 |  Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 50 | 39.513 | 0.202 | 227.768 |
| 3 | Jimmie Johnson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 79 | 39.521 | 0.210 | 227.722 |
| 4 |  Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 73 | 39.631 | 0.319 | 227.094 |
| 5 |  Rinus van Kalmthout | Ed Carpenter Racing | 76 | 39.648 | 0.336 | 226.995 |
| 6 |  Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | 68 | 39.652 | 0.340 | 226.973 |
| 7 | David Malukas | Dale Coyne Racing with HMD | 80 | 39.744 | 0.432 | 226.448 |
| 8 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 76 | 39.758 | 0.446 | 226.368 |
| 9 |  Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | 47 | 39.771 | 0.459 | 226.292 |
| 10 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani | 85 | 39.808 | 0.496 | 226.085 |
| 11 |  Devlin DeFrancesco | Andretti Autosport | 82 | 39.836 | 0.524 | 225.925 |
| 12 |  Simon Pagenaud | Meyer Shank Racing | 95 | 39.841 | 0.529 | 225.897 |
| 13 | Dalton Kellett | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 97 | 39.852 | 0.540 | 225.836 |
| 14 | J.R. Hildebrand | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 79 | 39.856 | 0.544 | 225.813 |
| 15 | Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren SP | 77 | 39.865 | 0.553 | 225.759 |
| 16 |  Will Power | Team Penske | 73 | 39.923 | 0.611 | 225.432 |
| 17 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 72 | 39.991 | 0.679 | 225.047 |
| 18 | Helio Castroneves | Meyer Shank Racing | 98 | 40.012 | 0.701 | 224.928 |
| 19 |  Callum Ilott | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 56 | 40.013 | 0.701 | 224.925 |
| 20 | Jack Harvey | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 91 | 40.015 | 0.703 | 224.912 |
| 21 | Kyle Kirkwood | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 49 | 40.052 | 0.740 | 224.705 |
| 22 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | 83 | 40.056 | 0.744 | 224.682 |
| 23 | Sage Karam | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 37 | 40.059 | 0.747 | 224.666 |
| 24 |  Patricio O'Ward | Arrow McLaren SP | 76 | 40.096 | 0.784 | 224.457 |
| 25 |  Christian Lundgaard | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 74 | 40.123 | 0.811 | 224.309 |
| 26 | Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport | 75 | 40.125 | 0.814 | 224.294 |
| 27 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | 71 | 40.139 | 0.828 | 224.216 |
| 28 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | 53 | 40.152 | 0.840 | 224.148 |
| 29 | Ed Carpenter | Ed Carpenter Racing | 58 | 40.158 | 0.846 | 224.113 |
| 30 |  Juan Pablo Montoya | Arrow McLaren SP | 37 | 40.191 | 0.879 | 223.929 |
| 31 | Romain Grosjean | Andretti Autosport | 83 | 40.370 | 1.058 | 222.935 |
| 32 | Stefan Wilson | DragonSpeed / Cusick Motorsports | 10 | 40.498 | 1.186 | 222.232 |
| 33 | Santino Ferrucci | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 20 | 40.652 | 1.341 | 221.386 |
| View full results | ||||||
IndyCar Indianapolis 500 FP1 results
| Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 25 | 39.626 | 227.119 | |
| 2 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 31 | 39.653 | 0.026 | 226.965 |
| 3 | Sage Karam | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 52 | 39.753 | 0.126 | 226.398 |
| 4 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | 44 | 39.883 | 0.257 | 225.655 |
| 5 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani | 24 | 39.928 | 0.301 | 225.403 |
| 6 | Santino Ferrucci | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 50 | 39.935 | 0.308 | 225.362 |
| 7 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | 41 | 39.941 | 0.314 | 225.330 |
| 8 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | 26 | 39.950 | 0.323 | 225.278 |
| 9 | Patricio O'Ward | Arrow McLaren SP | 34 | 40.014 | 0.387 | 224.920 |
| 10 | J.R. Hildebrand | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 23 | 40.081 | 0.454 | 224.544 |
| 11 | Kyle Kirkwood | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 54 | 40.092 | 0.465 | 224.484 |
| 12 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 35 | 40.103 | 0.476 | 224.419 |
| 13 | Dalton Kellett | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 52 | 40.103 | 0.477 | 224.417 |
| 14 | Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren SP | 39 | 40.110 | 0.483 | 224.381 |
| 15 | Will Power | Team Penske | 32 | 40.212 | 0.585 | 223.811 |
| 16 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | 22 | 40.220 | 0.593 | 223.768 |
| 17 | Rinus van Kalmthout | Ed Carpenter Racing | 38 | 40.223 | 0.596 | 223.750 |
| 18 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Arrow McLaren SP | 19 | 40.245 | 0.618 | 223.630 |
| 19 | Callum Ilott | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 32 | 40.288 | 0.661 | 223.389 |
| 20 | Christian Lundgaard | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 44 | 40.311 | 0.685 | 223.260 |
| 21 | Jimmie Johnson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 29 | 40.357 | 0.730 | 223.007 |
| 22 | Devlin DeFrancesco | Andretti Autosport | 16 | 40.396 | 0.770 | 222.789 |
| 23 | Jack Harvey | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 41 | 40.437 | 0.810 | 222.565 |
| 24 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | 25 | 40.439 | 0.812 | 222.554 |
| 25 | Ed Carpenter | Ed Carpenter Racing | 28 | 40.520 | 0.893 | 222.113 |
| 26 | Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport | 22 | 40.583 | 0.956 | 221.766 |
| 27 | Romain Grosjean | Andretti Autosport | 15 | 40.596 | 0.969 | 221.695 |
| 28 | David Malukas | Dale Coyne Racing with HMD | 21 | 40.602 | 0.975 | 221.662 |
| 29 | Simon Pagenaud | Meyer Shank Racing | 15 | 40.724 | 1.098 | 220.996 |
| 30 | Helio Castroneves | Meyer Shank Racing | 33 | 40.825 | 1.199 | 220.448 |
| 31 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 21 | 41.069 | 1.442 | 219.143 |
| 32 | Takuma Sato | Dale Coyne Racing | 4 | 42.424 | 2.797 | 212.142 |
| View full results | ||||||
