Taku`s St Petersburg Report

Takuma Sato was disappointed to end a typically exciting IndyCar Series race on the streets of St Petersburg in Florida at quarter-distance.

The Japanese ex-Formula 1 star was running comfortably in the top 10 for most of the first 25 laps until he unfortunately collected the tyre wall.

On only his second weekend as an IndyCar driver with the KV Racing Technology team, Taku made big progress. During the second free practice session on Friday, he lapped seventh fastest, within 0.1 seconds of second position. "It was quite positive and things were going smoothly," he said.

"St Pete was another new circuit for me, with a good mixture of low and high-speed corners, and a lot less bumpy than the first race in Brazil! There are some tricky corners and the high-speed section is quite challenging.

"This is a circuit the team knows, unlike Brazil, so we were able to work from a good baseline. I was able to start enjoying driving from the start and I was reasonably happy with balance."

Unfortunately, the handling took a turn for the worse on Saturday morning.

"Street circuits change dramatically as the rubber goes down," said Sato. "Usually it gets faster but sometimes it upsets the car in terms of balance." A big moment for Taku on the chicane kerbs - "the car was airborne" - meant lost time in the pits as the team replaced a damaged damper cover. "Once you've lost a time it's very hard to catch up and you never have time to do a proper back to back."

Nevertheless, Sato was happy to go fifth fastest in his 12-car group in first qualifying, putting him into the second round. And then he lost more time. "It was a relief to recover and good to get to the second stage. But on my out lap in Q2, we had a mechanical problem on a rear axle and a wheel came off. Fortunately it was a pretty slow section, Turn 5. Luckily the marshals got the wheel back on. So I was able to drive back to the pit. I got back on the circuit but finding the rhythm after this was not easy and we run out of time to make most of it, and further more I lost my two best lap times for causing a full-course caution." After these tribulations, he took 11th on the grid.

After the disappointment of a first-lap retirement in Sao Paulo, St Petersburg would be the first time Taku had driven a race stint on the softer, 'red' tyres. And he would have to wait 19 hours longer than planned, as a torrential storm delayed the race until Monday morning.

"At the start it was slick tyres on a damp condition. Usually these are conditions I enjoy, but everything is new to me in IndyCars so I felt a little bit uncertain. I was cautious at the rolling start, and went well in Turn 1 and made a few positions (ahead of team-mate EJ Viso and Mike

Conway)."

Sato settled into ninth place, running behind Alex Tagliani and ahead of Viso. "It was good fun and good to get a racing feeling, with some side-by-side overtaking - something missing in the past two years! But conditions were very green on the track, very hard for tyres. Some people

started to struggle with balance and so did I. I radioed to the team that I wanted to change to the primary tyre, but we needed to stretch more laps to the fuel window. Now I massively struggled with balance."

While struggling to hold off Vitor Meira, Taku slithered into the barriers.

"The car behind had much better pace, and this has taught me something. Before, everything I did in my career was sprint racing. When you're driving you always have to commit, but maybe there are occasions where you don't have to defend so much, because in IndyCar you have multiple full-course cautions particularly in these kind of conditions, so maybe it's not so absolutely critical if you lose a place. There are so many things to learn and I'm still learning."

The weekend after next is round three at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama, the beautiful road circuit where Sato started his IndyCar adventure: "There's a lot more to come there, and for the first time I know the circuit."

And talking of 'beautiful', Taku's new Lotus livery, marking the beginning of a tie-up with the legendary car maker, was a resounding success. "It's fantastic news for everyone!" he said. "It's such an iconic brand and I'm really pleased to be part of their Indy project and proud to drive in the historical British Racing Green colour."