Takuma Sato hits wall in incident filled second day of Indy 500 testing

Scott McLaughlin ended the second day of Indy 500 testing at the top of the timesheets on a day when drivers pushed beyond the limit, including former winner Takuma Sato.

After yesterday’s extended downtime, proceedings were not delayed, and cars took to the track as scheduled. Teams initially went about their test programmes as normal; however, the first incident did not take long to materialise.

Kyle Larson clipped the wall and broke his suspension, leaving him a passenger as he veered across the track, colliding with another wall before his car stopped. Unharmed, he got out, but did not return to the circuit.

But just minutes after the session restarted, Takuma Sato had a more dramatic crash, wrecking his RLL Racing return. An extended delay was required to clean up the oil and other fluids deposited during the incident. Like Larson, his day was also curtailed due to the extensive damage.

The rookies enjoyed a more competitive day, with Louis Foster finishing in 11th, Robert Shwartzman improving to 25th, and Jacob Abel to 28th.

Known as “Fast Friday”, the second day of Indy 500 testing featured all cars running turbo boost levels that will be used during qualifying for the fabled event. Scott McLaughlin’s lap of  232.686 mph was the fastest of testing, and laid down a marker for the field to catch.

Alex Palou topped the afternoon session, using the boost levels that will feature in the race, setting up a thrilling prospect.

Driver reaction

Speaking after the session, McLaughlin said he was happy with his testing programme, despite the stoppages.

“We had a really good day, a good couple of days,” said McLaughlin. “(I) felt like we got through a lot from a hybrid perspective.

“Then I felt like the morning qualifying session – the high-boost session – was a bit of a crapshoot. (There were a) couple yellows. When the track got better, it was a bit dirty from some of the shunts, as well. Then everyone was trying to cram a lot into 40 minutes. But overall, a really solid (car) balance to kick off the Month of May.”

Alex Palou confirmed he believes he is in the fight for victory after finishing sixth at last year’s race.

“You need to keep on always chasing it and trying to make it better,” said Palou. “Trying to make it more comfortable when running in traffic, trying to make it faster when you’re alone. That’s the car that gives me a chance (to win), for sure.”

Takuma Sato provided an honest take on his session ending crash, aware of the setback to himself and RLL Racing: “I lost it; I simply lost it,” Sato said. “It’s hard. My body is fine. It’s just the car … I lost the car. That’s heartbreaking.”

Overall Test Results

1 3 McLaughlin, Scott 232.686 mph
2 75 Sato, Takuma 232.565 mph
3 12 Power, Will 232.278 mph
4 60 Rosenqvist, Felix 232.100 mph
5 10 Palou, Alex 231.843 mph
6 9 Dixon, Scott 231.580 mph
7 27 Kirkwood, Kyle 231.464 mph
8 26 Herta, Colton 231.463 mph
9 2 Newgarden, Josef 231.229 mph
10 8 Simpson, Kyffin 230.323 mph
11 45 Foster, Louis 230.263 mph
12 28 Ericsson, Marcus 230.075 mph
13 77 Robb, Sting Ray 229.874 mph
14 5 O’Ward, Pato 229.735 mph
15 20 Rossi, Alexander 229.716 mph
16 15 Rahal, Graham 229.634 mph
17 66 Armstrong, Marcus 229.565 mph
18 21 Rasmussen, Christian 229.341 mph
19 30 DeFrancesco, Devlin 229.120 mph
20 14 Ferrucci, Santino 228.860 mph
21 76 Daly, Conor 228.820 mph
22 7 Lundgaard, Christian 228.334 mph
23 06 Castroneves, Helio 228.177 mph
24 18 Veekay, Rinus 227.714 mph
25 83 Shwartzman, Robert 227.517 mph
26 4 Malukas, David D/C/F Practice 227.353 mph
27 23 Hunter-Reay, Ryan 226.962 mph
28 51 Abel, Jacob 226.408 mph
29 24 Harvey, Jack 226.355 mph
30 33 Carpenter, Ed 226.271 mph
31 90 Ilott, Callum 225.919 mph
32 98 Andretti, Marco 223.602 mph
33 17 Larson, Kyle 223.430 mph
34 6 Siegel, Nolan 222.504 mph