Takuma Sato didn’t win the Indianapolis 500, but the manner in which he was denied – in a contentious last-lap incident with Dario Franchitti – will likely win him a whole new legion of fans. That’s thanks to a tenacious, attacking drive that brought him from 19th on the grid to the brink of an incredible maiden win in the IZOD IndyCar Series.

The history books will record a 17th-place finish for Sato, but no-one who watched the race will remember that. Instead, they will recall a fantastic performance by Taku and the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team.

For Sato, and even Franchitti, to be in such a position seemed impossible a week before the race. The Honda-engined runners were significantly outpaced as the Chevrolet runners extracted more performance out of the new Dallara DW12 chassis in qualifying, so a lot of work was needed before the race.

“We were lucky with the weather,” admitted Taku. “The last two years there were always some rainy days interrupting our running. This year, with the new car, we got a fundamental set-up from half a day of testing in April, then in early week of the event we needed working details on ride heights and aero maps, and in practice we were reasonably happy with performance. We were pretty competitive and we could start trimming the car out and move our target onto qualifying. On the last day of practice before Fast Friday we were working on this, while the Andretti and Penske Chevy cars were going around together, working on race runs.

“But then Fast Friday came and it was a completely different scenario. We saw that all the Chevys had sandbagged and they made a huge jump on speed. We were quite shocked. We tried to maximise the mechanical set-up as well as a reduction of drag – usually in qualifying you’re limited by grip and we were getting into the region of being limited by drag. What we did in qualifying was the maximum we could get.”

It was good for the inside of the seventh row, well in the mix of the Honda runners but frustratingly far down overall. So once again the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team got to work on finding a set-up in time for Carb Day – with its single hour of running before the race. “We needed to lose a couple of degrees of rear wing just to maintain the same straight-line speed,” said Sato, “and we needed to revisit a lot of parameters on race set-up. It was quite challenging but my engineer Gerry Hughes did a great job. I was happy with the progress and we were able to run in traffic, but I was still not really confident.”

So it was a quiet start to the race for Taku, who sat in 19th or 20th for the first eight laps before making gradual progress up the field. By the time the first yellow flew on lap 14 he was up to 16th, which became 14th when everyone pitted. Then came the charge, with Sato romping through the field so that he was fifth after everyone pitted under green around the 50-lap mark, quarter-distance.

“Initially I just had to make sure everything was OK,” he said, “but slowly but surely we moved up positions. The Dallara DW12 gives a massive tow – unbelievable amount when there are 18 cars in front of you! I had good downforce and I was making positions up, and we made a couple of adjustments on pitstops that made me more confident. Now I could attack a bit. I had a car that was very good in traffic. At that time I was very strong but we knew we had a problem for later in the race – that with our level of downforce the car would not be so good in clear air.”

Through the next portion of the race Taku battled with Franchitti, Ryan Briscoe, Tony Kanaan and James Hinchcliffe as he ran between third and fifth. Then, at a yellow just before half-distance, he and leader Marco Andretti pitted to go out of synch with many of the other leading runners. Sato rejoined 12th, but some great passing meant he was sixth within a lap of the restart
while Andretti got mired in the pack.

Gradually he rose the order, passing Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal and Franchitti to move into second on lap 118. When leader Scott Dixon pitted, Taku was in the lead. And, when he made his own stop a few laps later, he remained in front and continued to look comfortable.

At a restart with 47 laps remaining, he was passed by Franchitti into Turn 3, and Dixon quickly got by too. At subsequent restarts during a spate of late cautions he would lose out – in the final instance, he had to back off behind Ryan Briscoe and was instantly slipstreamed by Wilson and Hinchcliffe down to seventh. That gave him surely too much to do in the final sprint, which would amount to just six laps…

“Two or three times we made changes to the rear wing,” said Sato. “That was some experience, because I’ve never done that in a race. The mechanical grip wasn’t perfect so for the last stint I had a really neutral car.

“We were back to single-file restarts for this year, so you’re a bit more in control, but at the speedway with long gears that you have to get the timing absolutely perfect. Two or three times I was trying to figure it out, and at the penultimate restart TK made a huge jump from sixth to first! That was so good I had to laugh… But it was a big wake-up call and the question was, could I do the same?

“So in the end I made it. I went from seventh to fourth, and then I overtook TK and then I passed Scott (going into Turn 1 on the 199th lap). I knew Dario and I would be a very last-lap story. I had to do it – I was going to win this! Through Turn 3 and 4 I gave it everything I have, the car was sliding but I got very close to Dario. I was able to dive to the inside into Turn 1, and before we turned in we were side by side. But Dario kept his steering in the same direction, squashing me to the white line. It’s incredibly difficult there…
“When I’d gone inside I thought ‘job done, I’ve completed the manoeuvre’. With Dario so close, I was hoping we could at least go side by side if he gave me just half a car of width or respected the white line. But it didn’t happen. My rear tyre started to slide… But you’ve got to go for it, and I thought I’d done it.

“Maybe if I had one more lap in my pocket I wouldn’t go for it at that point. But when you know you only have four corners left, and it’s very difficult to do it in Turn 3 because of the wind direction washing you out exiting Turn 2, then you’ve got to go for it.

“So the outcome was not what we all wished but it was still an incredible day and INDY500 is so special. I really enjoyed the race and so proud of my team. we aren’t the most funded team but here we are ultra competitive and it was an outstanding performance from the all boys. Big thank you to them, my sponsors, all my fans and everyone to cheer on me yesterday!”

There’s little time to dwell on this, as the IndyCar Series enters a hectic series of races beginning with the Detroit Belle Isle course next weekend. “Indy was very exciting, very positive, with a lot of cheering from the crowds and I’m very proud of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team. They did an outstanding job. I’m just so disappointed that I couldn’t win, but I’ll keep on charging!”

SATO WAS THREE TURNS FROM A POTENTIAL WIN IN THE INDY 500 BUT FINISHED 17TH DUE TO CONTACT AFTER BEING ALONGSIDE THE EVENTUAL WINNER; JOURDAIN JR. FINISHED 19TH

TAKUMA SATO
“What an incredible weekend. Not only the weekend, but it was also an incredible month of May. I was going for the win. On the last restart, we jumped from seventh to fifth, then taking fourth, third, second. I kept pushing and overtaking. On the very last lap I had a good tow from Dario (Franchitti). I thought I had the job done. But he kept pushing and didn’t give me enough room so that I was well below the white line. But it was an outstanding job by the team. It was a very exciting race. I was calm when I was leading. I knew there were many laps to go and I was following team protocol. The last 30 laps were pretty exciting. The two yellows in 30 laps gave us some good opportunities to move forward. The moment I was alongside Dario I said to myself ‘Job done.’ I was hoping that coming out of Turn 1 side-by-side with Dario we would take the lead going to Turn 2 and Turn 3. It didn’t work out that way though. He could have given a little bit more space and we would have come out of the corner no problem. Into Turn 1 I was well below the white line. It was in the center of the monocoque. I was almost in the grass and the car started sliding.”

TAKUMA SATO
“Qualifying was a little frustrating. We showed speed in the week and thought we had a good speed in qualifying trim. After experiencing high boost in Fast Friday yesterday and this morning, the handling of the race car improved but we didn’t have the pure qualifying speed unfortunately. But we should be happy with the result of qualifying on the first day. I was reasonably happy with the balance. It is a shame we weren’t able to qualify a little higher. Now we go back to race mode and try to improve the race set up tomorrow and Carb Day. Hopefully we have a strong package for the race.”

TAKUMA SATO
“It was not an easy day. Today was all about qualifying preparation, starting to trim the car aerodynamically and we got extra boost too. Straight line and corner entry speed was a lot faster than the last five days and we were working on improving both the mechanical grip and the reduction of the drag. There were a few elements that were positive but we have work to do before qualifying tomorrow.”