Takuma Sato endured a difficult debut at the Texas Motor Speedway after being forced to retire from the Firestone 550k.
Takuma, the rookie driver of the #5 Lotus-KV Racing Technology Honda/Dallara/Firestone machine, qualified in a strong eleventh place on the grid at the 1.5-mile oval but his race would come to an early end.
Heading into turn two on lap 57, Takuma suffered a failure in the rear suspension which saw him go into the barriers.
Takuma walked away uninjured and watched the remainder of the race from the Lotus team's pit area.
"The start was quite exciting," he said. "It's a great track, especially for side-by-side racing. But soon, I started to struggle with the balance and I lifted through the corners. I was just hanging on and waiting until the first stop.
"The crew did a great job to get back the balance during the first pit stop. I was able to keep pace and overtake people. Going into turn two, there was a sudden failure and I went into the wall. The impact was very gentle. It is such a shame to have it end like this."
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