Wheel Gun Hampers Sato Qualifying Effort

Takuma Sato's qualifying effort at the Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg was hampered by a wheel gun malfunction, but the Japanese ace still managed the eleventh fastest time in the Firestone Fast Six shoot-out format.

Sato, who will be competing in just his second IndyCar race and the first in the #5 car's iconic green-and-yellow Lotus livery, posted a time of 62.4205secs, but it wasn't enough to get him through to subsequent stages of the qualifying session, and will see him line up on the inside of row six at the Florida street circuit, having claimed seventh on the combined speed report after Friday's practice.

However, his morning practice session suffered something of a mishap when, working to gain speed in turn twelve, he hit a kerb and slightly damaged his car. After some quick repairs, Sato finished the session with the 17th fastest lap and then, running in the second qualifying group, did enough to produced the fifth quickest time to advance to round two.

Unfortunately, a wheel gun malfunctioned at just the wrong time and did not properly secure the right rear wheel so that, on his first lap of the second round, the wheel came off, causing a caution. After an inspection for damage, and an equipment change, Sato went back on track, but ran fewer laps than the other eleven drivers and lost his fastest lap because the yellow flag.

"It was an eventful day for the Lotus–KV Racing team," Sato admitted, "I wasn't particularly happy with the balance of the car in the morning practice session and then hit the kerb.

"In qualifying, I was reasonably happy with the balance and was able to put the lap times together to move into the second round. However, in that session, I got a wheel-related mechanical problem, which caused the wheel to come loose. After that, we ran out of time to make the best use of the session, and I was unable to put competitive lap times together with the little time I had left.

"However, we will work hard tonight and be ready for warm-up tomorrow and I still think that we will have a good race."