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 run a qualifying setup earlier than usual in the week of practice, as they had extra tires 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 (31st fastest overall) led the no-tow laps at 223.212mph, ahead of his team boss.
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.
| P | No | Name | FTime | Diff | FSpeed | Team | Engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 | Takuma Sato | 39.2261 | 39.2261 | 229.439 | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda |
| 2 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 39.2714 | 0.0453 | 229.174 | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda |
| 3 | 14 | Santino Ferrucci | 39.3053 | 0.0792 | 228.977 | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Chevy |
| 4 | 10 | Alex Palou | 39.3494 | 0.1233 | 228.720 | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda |
| 5 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | 39.3919 | 0.1658 | 228.473 | Team Penske | Chevy |
| 6 | 26 | Colton Herta | 39.4639 | 0.2378 | 228.057 | Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian | Honda |
| 7 | 8 | Marcus Ericsson | 39.5256 | 0.2995 | 227.701 | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda |
| 8 | 23 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 39.5397 | 0.3136 | 227.619 | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | Chevy |
| 9 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | 39.5668 | 0.3407 | 227.463 | Team Penske | Chevy |
| 10 | 98 | Marco Andretti | 39.6507 | 0.4246 | 226.982 | Andretti | Honda |
| 11 | 30 | Jack Harvey | 39.6659 | 0.4398 | 226.895 | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Honda |
| 12 | 12 | Will Power | 39.6710 | 0.4449 | 226.866 | Team Penske | Chevy |
| 13 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 39.6973 | 0.4712 | 226.716 | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Honda |
| 14 | 20 | Conor Daly | 39.7333 | 0.5072 | 226.510 | Ed Carpenter Racing | Chevy |
| 15 | 24 | Stefan Wilson | 39.7728 | 0.5467 | 226.285 | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | Chevy |
| 16 | 18 | David Malukas | 39.7982 | 0.5721 | 226.141 | Dale Coyne Racing with HMD | Honda |
| 17 | 60 | Simon Pagenaud | 39.7988 | 0.5727 | 226.137 | Meyer Shank Racing | Honda |
| 18 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | 39.8524 | 0.6263 | 225.833 | Ed Carpenter Racing | Chevy |
| 19 | 7 | Alexander Rossi | 39.8929 | 0.6668 | 225.604 | Arrow McLaren | Chevy |
| 20 | 5 | Pato O'Ward | 39.9100 | 0.6839 | 225.507 | Arrow McLaren | Chevy |
| 21 | 55 | Benjamin Pedersen | 39.9149 | 0.6888 | 225.480 | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Chevy |
| 22 | 78 | Agustin Canapino | 39.9242 | 0.6981 | 225.427 | Juncos Holling Racing | Chevy |
| 23 | 66 | Tony Kanaan | 39.9528 | 0.7267 | 225.266 | Arrow McLaren | Chevy |
| 24 | 06 | Helio Castroneves | 39.9727 | 0.7466 | 225.154 | Meyer Shank Racing | Honda |
| 25 | 27 | Kyle Kirkwood | 40.0199 | 0.7938 | 224.888 | Andretti Autosport | Honda |
| 26 | 51 | Sting Ray Robb | 40.0340 | 0.8079 | 224.809 | Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR | Honda |
| 27 | 6 | Felix Rosenqvist | 40.0435 | 0.8174 | 224.756 | Arrow McLaren | Chevy |
| 28 | 33 | Ed Carpenter | 40.0464 | 0.8203 | 224.739 | Ed Carpenter Racing | Chevy |
| 29 | 29 | Devlin DeFrancesco | 40.0778 | 0.8517 | 224.563 | Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport | Honda |
| 30 | 28 | Romain Grosjean | 40.0802 | 0.8541 | 224.550 | Andretti Autosport | Honda |
| 31 | 44 | Katherine Legge | 40.0961 | 0.8700 | 224.461 | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Honda |
| 32 | 45 | Christian Lundgaard | 40.1249 | 0.8988 | 224.300 | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Honda |
| 33 | 50 | RC Enerson | 40.1755 | 0.9494 | 224.017 | Abel Motorsports | Chevy |
| 34 | 77 | Callum Ilott | 40.2849 | 1.0588 | 223.409 | Juncos Hollinger Racing | Chevy |
