Takuma Sato Tag

By Takuma Sato, Driver Columnist In his sixth column for Motorsports Tribune, Takuma Sato discusses his return to form in the Verizon IndyCar Series round at Mid-Ohio, readying for the ‘Tricky Triangle’ known as Pocono Raceway, the 2018 Indy car and earning a Japanese lifetime achievement award for his performance in winning the 101st Indianapolis 500. Rebounding at Mid-Ohio I was reasonably happy. Obviously, qualifying third and finishing fifth isn’t the perfect scenario, but I was happy to have a strong race. It was a long time since I had a raceRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — In a performance that redeemed him for 2014, Josef Newgarden pulled off a dominant drive to win Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and with it, picked up the Verizon IndyCar Series points lead. It was a clean start as polesitter Will Power held off teammate Newgarden as the entire field got through the first lap without incident. The largest gainer in the field in the opening few laps was Marco Andretti, up four positions inRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — Graham Rahal was fastest in the Sunday morning warmup for the Verizon IndyCar Series’s Honda Indy 200 Sunday afternoon. Rahal turned a fastest lap of 1:05.0239 on his 16th lap out of 23 turned. His No. 15 Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan Racing Honda will start the race in fourth place. Team Penske driver Helio Castroneves would be second fastest, .2768 seconds behind Rahal’s time. He will start fifth. Andretti Autosport occupies the rest of the top five with Marco Andretti ahead ofRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — Takuma Sato has been a man on the move since the Verizon IndyCar Series arrived at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200. The Andretti Autosport driver was 16th at the end of the first Friday practice session, more than three quarters of a second off of the fastest time. In the second practice session, Sato jumped to 11th fastest and despite the gap to the leader increasing, his lap time was a half second faster andRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — Will Power earned his 49th career Verizon IndyCar Series pole for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, tying him with Bobby Unser for fourth on the all time pole list. Power leads teammate Josef Newgarden on the front row while Honda occupies the second row with Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal starting third and fourth, respectively. 2015 Mid-Ohio winner Graham Rahal and five time Mid-Ohio winner Scott Dixon start fifth and sixth, respectively. Qualifying began withRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — Friday practice for the Verizon IndyCars Series at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course indicated that it would be a very competitive weekend across Honda and Chevrolet for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200. In the first session, Simon Pagenaud and Graham Rahal topped the chart for Chevrolet and Honda respectively with Pagenaud going around the 2.258 mile road course with a lap time of 1:04.9079. Rahal was .0343 seconds behind while Marco Andretti’s Honda was third fastest ahead of the Team PenskeRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — The Verizon IndyCar Series heads to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the Honda Indy 200 and a closing championship battle can become even more complex at the track metaphorically owned by Scott Dixon. Dixon leads the IndyCar series points by three over three time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, but Dixon’s biggest advantage is that he knows how to win at this track. From 2007 to 2014, Dixon won five times in eight runnings but did not finish lastRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Expect the unexpected. This year has seen a massive improvement from Honda as they have won five out of eight races and heading into a newly-reconfigured Texas Motor Speedway, the Verizon IndyCar Series had no idea what to expect into Saturday’s Rainguard Water Sealers 600. Well, looking at the practice and qualifying recaps, it was a complete tossup until final practice. In the first practice session, Honda had the top six times as Scott Dixon led Charlie Kimball, Alexander Rossi, Graham Rahal,Read More

By Takuma Sato, Driver Columnist In his fifth column for Motorsports Tribune, Takuma Sato takes us inside the cockpit on how he won the 101st Running of the Indianapolis 500, the second consecutive for Andretti Autosport. He also carried that momentum into the Detroit doubleheader with two solid top five finishes and now sits third in the Verizon IndyCar Series championship standings as they ready for this weekend’s race at Texas. The Final Run to Victory It’s all about timing and it worked out perfectly. There was 22 laps to goRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer In Friday practice for the Verizon IndyCar Series’ Chevrolet Grand Prix of Detroit doubleheader weekend, Graham Rahal and Helio Castroneves were all alone at the top of the time sheet as both drivers were fastest in each of the two practice sessions. Not only that, but they were second fastest in the session where they weren’t fastest. In opening practice, Rahal went around the 2.35 mile Belle Isle street circuit with a time of 1 min 15.3328 seconds while Castroneves was justRead More