Lotus Concludes Practice

Lotus got in a second full day of testing on the last day of practice prior to tomorrow’s qualifying for the 2011 Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana.

Takuma Sato, No. 5 KV Racing Technology – Lotus, lead the team by topping the 227 mph mark for the first time on the historic 2.5-mile Brickyard oval with a speed of 227.054 mph placing him 12th on both the session and combined speed charts.  Tony Kanaan, No. 82 GEICO – KV Racing Technology – Lotus, was above 225 mph for the second day in a row with a lap of 225.707 mph putting him 25th on today’s report.  E. J. Viso, No. 59 PDVSA - KV Racing Technology – Lotus, got above 225 for the first time with a lap of 225.406 mph.  This was the first time all three KVRT – Lotus drivers exceeded the 225 mph mark.

Sato, who will be trying to qualifying for his second Indy 500, ran 51 laps today giving him a team high 174 since the Speedway opened.  Commenting on his day the Japanese star said, “It was another productive test day.  We tried many things with the race setup and in qualifying trim.  It was good because we tried a lot of things that helped me understand the bigger picture.  We still have a few things to do before qualifying, but today was a valuable day.”

Kanaan ran 49 laps today for a total of 171.  Speaking about today’s final practice the talented Brazilian, , who is attempting to make the field for his 10th Indy 500, said, "We're still working hard in order to get the car where we want it to be, but it's not been easy. There are a lot of fast cars out there but there are also a lot of people getting tows, so the truth will only come out tomorrow during qualifying when each driver takes their laps by themselves. I think it's going to be hard to qualify tomorrow, let’s see."

Viso logged a team high 61 laps on the last day of testing giving him 173 in three and a half days of practice.  The determined young Venezuelan, who is looking to qualify for his fourth Indy 500, said “It was another pretty good testing day…great weather. We were once again able to complete our program for the day.  We went out tried some different qualifying setups and also worked on our race trim.  I think little by little we are making a stronger car, but we still have a lot of work to do to analyze all the data we collected.  Qualifying is tomorrow and we believe we have a lot of the answers.  We just need to put them all together for qualifying and then we will focus on reviewing the data for the race trim.”

A total of 40 cars ran a total of 2254 laps today making the total since Opening day, 6709.  Helio Castroneves posted today’s fastest lap and the quickest so far at 228.611 mph.   

Qualifying for the 2011 Indianapolis 500 begins tomorrow with Pole Day, when the pole and the first 24 spots on the grid will be determined.  Bump Day is Sunday, May 22 when the final nine cars will qualify.  The 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 is Sunday, May 29.  It will be broadcast live on ABC beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET.