Sato Completes Final 500 Preparations

Takuma Sato put the final touches to his preparations for the Indianapolis 500, posting the 15th fastest time during the traditional 'Carb Day' practice session in front of a big sun-drenched crowd.

Race rookie Sato will start 31st on the 33-car grid in the #5 Lotus-KV Racing Technology Dallara-Honda, having survived a typically frenetic 'Bump Day' qualifying session, and used the final opportunity to gain track time to further his Indianapolis experience. The Japanese driver made F1 appearances at Indianapolis, but will be entering only his second oval race in the IndyCar Series, and his first on a superspeedway.

"The conditions today were the most difficult I have experienced here at Indy," Taku admitted, "We tried various set-ups in a limited time frame as, having concentrated on our qualifying set-up until today, this was my first opportunity to work on our race sim. I feel we need to improve the car some more, but we have a strong engineering staff and I am very optimistic that we will have a good car for the race. It will be exciting to race in my first Indianapolis 500."

With preparation opportunities and track time now done until the cars take to the famous Brickyard circuit for the race on Sunday, Sato and his fellow drivers will spend Saturday at an autograph session for the fans, before heading to the public drivers' meeting and the annual 500 Festival Parade through downtown Indianapolis.