Indy 500 practice underway with Sato starting on top

Practice 3 for the 2023 Indianapolis 500 - Wednesday, May 17

Former Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato began his campaign for success in this year's race by topping the timesheets in first day of practice on Wednesday.

The Japanese star's best lap of the two and a half mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval clocked in at 39.2261s (229.439mph) and was set in the final two hours of the session featuring sunny skies and air temperatures in the mid-70s.

Having won the race in 2017 with Andretti Autosport and in 2020 with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, this is Sato's first Indy outing for new team Chip Ganassi Racing.

Read also: Perfect Palou secures first win of 2023 in GPR Grand Prix

His new team mate Scott Dixon - a multiple Indy 500 and IndyCar Series champion - was second quickest with a time of 39.2714s. The other members of the squad's line-up are Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson who were 4th and 7th respectively.

Palou had emerged victorious on the Speedway's road course circuit in the most recent IndyCar race at the weekend, putting him on top of the championship standings by six points from McLaren's Pato O'Ward.

“The organisation is very impressive,” Sato said when asked how he was fitting in at Ganassi. “Everything is in the right place and the right people. They use their resources and make the most of it. Preparation is simply impressive.

"All four drivers divided a few different programs," he commented. "We’re just working on what’s the best way.

"I wasn’t particularly happy with the kind of sensation I was getting in the morning," he continued.

"In the afternoon, the group run by Ganassi was a great hint for me about what needs to be done. We went for it, and we had a big tow, and that’s why we have a very successful platform right now.”

Sato and Dixon were the only two drivers to top 229mph, with AJ Foyt Racing's Santino Ferrucci, Palou and Penske's Scott McLaughlin all narrowly missing out.

Andretti's Colton Herta was sixth ahead of Ericsson, followed by series veterans Ryan Hunter-Reay (Dreyer & Reinbold), Josef Newgarden (Penske) and Marco Andretti rounding out the top ten.

The first day of practice had originally been scheduled for Tuesday, but was washed out by intermittent showers. It's only the third complete cancellation of a practice day for 'The Greatest Spectacle in Racing' in the last seven years.

The last time practice was completely rained-out was May 18 last year, and before that not since May 17 in 2016.

This year's qualifying will take place at the weekend, while the 107th running of the Indy 500 is set to get the green flag on Sunday, May 28 just hours after the finish of the Monaco GP in Europe.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.