Contact Dents Sato Hopes

Takuma Sato's debut on the iconic Long Beach street course did not run to plan, with the IZOD IndyCar Series rookie seeing his hopes of a solid result hit - quite literally - by another driver's inattention.

Sato was unable to improve more than one place on his 19th starting position, despite initially making moves up the order, after his #5 Lotus-KVRT Dallara-Honda was collected by Dale Coyne Racing's Alex Lloyd, causing the Japanese ace to spin. Although he was able to return to the fray, and continued to take the chequered flag, he was a lap down on winner Ryan Hunter-Reay.

"It was a tough weekend," Taku admitted, "After qualifying Saturday, we made a number of changes to the car for this morning's warm-up and it was a positive move. The race started solidly, as we saved our tyres and fuel to stretch our first stint. It was all setting up nicely but, in the second stint, Alex Lloyd came out of the pits on cold tyres, couldn't stop and struck my car under braking, causing me to spin.

"That really ended my race because there was no full-course caution until the end. In all, it was a very disappointing and tough race, but it was another good learning experience for me. Next, we race in Kansas and my first oval test will be there this coming Friday. I am very excited to start my oval adventure."