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.

Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Autosport Honda (Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images)

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

P	No	Driver	Time	Diff	Interval	Speed	Engine	Team
1	11	Takuma Sato	38.3382	38.3382	--.----	234.753	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	98	Marco Andretti	38.4283	0.0901	0.0901	234.202	Honda	Andretti
3	21	Rinus VeeKay	38.4334	0.0952	0.0051	234.171	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
4	8	Marcus Ericsson	38.4568	0.1186	0.0234	234.029	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
5	5	Pato O'Ward	38.4951	0.1569	0.0383	233.796	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
6	2	Josef Newgarden	38.4999	0.1617	0.0048	233.767	Chevy	Team Penske
7	14	Santino Ferrucci	38.5013	0.1631	0.0014	233.758	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
8	27	Kyle Kirkwood	38.5260	0.1878	0.0247	233.608	Honda	Andretti Autosport
9	26	Colton Herta	38.5348	0.1966	0.0088	233.555	Honda	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
10	9	Scott Dixon	38.5429	0.2047	0.0081	233.506	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
11	6	Felix Rosenqvist	38.5509	0.2127	0.0080	233.458	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
12	12	Will Power	38.5614	0.2232	0.0105	233.394	Chevy	Team Penske
13	3	Scott McLaughlin	38.5691	0.2309	0.0077	233.347	Chevy	Team Penske
14	10	Alex Palou	38.5822	0.2440	0.0131	233.268	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
15	55	Benjamin Pedersen	38.5939	0.2557	0.0117	233.197	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
16	7	Alexander Rossi	38.6044	0.2662	0.0105	233.134	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
17	66	Tony Kanaan	38.6106	0.2724	0.0062	233.097	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
18	20	Conor Daly	38.6288	0.2906	0.0182	232.987	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
19	28	Romain Grosjean	38.6363	0.2981	0.0075	232.942	Honda	Andretti Autosport
20	78	Agustin Canapino	38.6399	0.3017	0.0036	232.920	Chevy	Juncos Holling Racing
21	33	Ed Carpenter	38.6406	0.3024	0.0007	232.916	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
22	23	Ryan Hunter-Reay	38.6497	0.3115	0.0091	232.861	Chevy	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
23	60	Simon Pagenaud	38.6939	0.3557	0.0442	232.595	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
24	24	Stefan Wilson	38.6981	0.3599	0.0042	232.570	Chevy	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
25	18	David Malukas	38.7320	0.3938	0.0339	232.366	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
26	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	38.7391	0.4009	0.0071	232.323	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
27	06	Helio Castroneves	38.7701	0.4319	0.0310	232.138	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
28	51	Sting Ray Robb	38.8435	0.5053	0.0734	231.699	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
29	44	Katherine Legge	38.8904	0.5522	0.0469	231.420	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
30	50	RC Enerson	38.9203	0.5821	0.0299	231.242	Chevy	Abel Motorsports
31	30	Jack Harvey	38.9331	0.5949	0.0128	231.166	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
32	45	Christian Lundgaard	38.9353	0.5971	0.0022	231.153	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
33	15	Graham Rahal	39.0170	0.6788	0.0817	230.669	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
34	77	Callum Ilott	39.3113	0.9731	0.2943	228.942	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing