The pace wasn’t quite what he hoped for, but Takuma Sato was able to celebrate the return of the IZOD IndyCar Series to the road and street circuits after a run of ovals by taking a very respectable ninth place in Toronto in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara-Honda.

And despite what Taku described as a “pretty tough” race, it was far and away his best showing on a track where things hadn’t gone his way at all in his first two seasons in IndyCar.

“Toronto hadn’t been so kind to me the last two years,” he said, “not because of not liking the track or anything like that, but just because we couldn’t find competitiveness. It was a big shame that results were disappointing.
“This year I came back here with a new team, new package and big hope. I always enjoy Canada – it doesn’t matter whether it’s Formula 1 or IndyCar. The fans here are so enthusiastic, particularly with their memories of my drive in 2007 in Montreal with Super Aguri. People come to Toronto with a lot of photos of that race! It’s just a great atmosphere.”

Sato and the team kicked off the 2012 Toronto weekend in reasonably encouraging form. “It felt quite smooth on day one and we were top 10 in the first session. The Rahal team’s last visit was quite a long time ago so we he had to go through all the simulation stuff, and all our work was to do with fundamental set-up. But it all went smoothly, the balance was reasonable and we made good progress through second practice.”

Practice on Saturday morning started in the wet, and although Taku was among the pacesetters the conditions militated against learning more about the car. “We had to estimate things that would hopefully work for qualifying,” he explained, “knowing that the softer alternate tyres would shift the balance.”
For only the second time this season, Sato went through from the first qualifying round, setting the fifth fastest time in his half of the entry split. In the second round he was eighth, but his two best laps were deducted for inadvertently baulking Will Power, relegating him to 11th. “The penalty was a difficult one,” he said. “I went into the escape road at Turn 2, and you wait there until the marshal waves. I followed that protocol, but because there was dust on my tyres I could not get up to pace rapidly, so in a way I was maybe blocking.”

Even so, Taku would move back up to ninth on the grid due to penalties for Alex Tagliani and James Hinchcliffe. Then he lost some places in the early laps of the race before settling into 12th position, in between Ryan Briscoe and eventual runner-up Charlie Kimball.

“We chose the prime tyre. Pace-wise we weren’t quick and a couple of guys were charging with alternate tyres. They looked strong, so the team brought me in a little earlier than scheduled. I would then run a longer second stint on the alternate tyres.”

A caution on lap 24 due to Graham Rahal’s crash promoted Taku to sixth, as the remaining front-runners who had not yet stopped were forced to pit under yellow flags. At the restart, Hinchcliffe dived into the pits and Sato swooped inside Justin Wilson into Turn 1 to take fourth, although the charging Tony Kanaan instantly demoted both drivers.

Although Taku held fifth for some laps, he was then passed by Wilson, then Kimball, and began to fade ever more dramatically as the stint wore on. “I started to struggle on braking,” he said, “and we were just hanging on for a long stint but after 20 laps I got a huge drop-off of grip. I had huge balance issues and couldn’t brake hard.”

Suddenly Sato was losing a load of places, and his second stop was again earlier than planned. “The plan was to stretch the second stint and challenge with a new set of alternate tyres, but because I lost so much time and position we came in a lap or two earlier than scheduled. That meant I would have to save some fuel to the end of the race, because I was going longer than we expected, and although the balance was better we had brake issues.”

Taku settled into a midfield group that had fallen away from the main runners, with multiple champion Dario Franchitti leading the gaggle. Sato was passed by James Jakes and was in 15th place heading into the closing stages, when suddenly there was a yellow for Josef Newgarden’s incident. As some pitted, Taku was promoted to 11th for the restart. As the race went green, Sebastien Bourdais crashed at Turn 1, so did Briscoe, Franchitti and Simon Pagenaud, among others, at Turn 3. Suddenly Sato was ninth, and he kept the position as the race finished under caution.

“The final restart was quite packed – I gained a position at Turn 1 and was heading for a massive junction at Turn 3, where I could see that something was very highly likely happening. Cars were three-wide and there was nowhere you could go! Dario and Briscoe tangled right in front of me and I got hit by Marco Andretti, but I survived.

“OK, ninth is not the best, in fact it was disappointing but considering it was a tough race for us in the difficult circumstances, I think that was a good result.”

Now the IndyCar Series heads west for the next race on July 22nd. The teams move from Toronto – a circuit where Taku had never had a good result – to Edmonton, a place where he always seems to absolutely fly. “I knew I had to have a good finish in Toronto to carry good momentum to Edmonton and Mid-Ohio, which are both good circuits for me and races I’m really looking forward to. Toronto was good experience and the progress we made in set-up and development means we should be looking good.”

TAKUMA SATO
“It was a tough race. We chose to start with the primary tire and tried to hold our position but a couple of people got by with the quicker alternate tire. We settled into a pace and it was, in a way, surprising to see not much yellow at the beginning of the race. It was good to see all of the cars get through Turn 1 and 3 but then we tried a little different sequence and made our first pit stop earlier and put on the alternate tire and tried to stretch the run but unfortunately we had a little balance issue on the second set of tires and lost quite a bit of time and gradually lost positions which was a shame. We need to look into it that but it also seems we have a small problem on the brakes because I am losing them too. It was a tough race and in the end its good to finish in the top-10 but I wanted to be a little higher. Good job by everyone though.”

GERRY HUGHES
“Given where we started and the promise we showed in qualifying it was a disappointing result. We had a lot of tire degradation on the scrubbed option tires we ran in the second stint and we did a long stint so I think we paid the price in terms of our pace towards the end of the second stint before going on to fresh rubber for stint three. We were fortunate with the full course yellow towards the end of the race and were able to claim back some positions. But to start ninth and finish ninth, I’m disappointed with that.”

TAKUMA SATO
“Overall it was a good day and a good qualifying session but unfortunately we had a penalty which was quite harsh. Obviously I don’t want to impede anyone of course. I went wide in Turn 1 and there were a lot of marbles. I went back on track when the Marshalls said to go. I couldn’t see much in the distance; not the closing speeds of any cars. I tried my best to avoid impeding anyone but unfortunately I was penalized. We worked through our run program and made good progress. We were very strong in the wet as we have been this season. Relatively, we lost a little speed at the end of the practice session when the track dried but we came back and were strong in qualifying. Starting ninth (after the engine penalties) of two cars is a good effort. I enjoy driving in Toronto and this was our best qualifying position on a street course this season. Hopefully we can continue to learn in tomorrow’s warm-up and move forward in the race. Turn 3 is the best opportunity for passing as it’s after the long straight and one of the heaviest braking points on the street circuit. You go from sixth gear to first gear. Nothing is impossible but the other areas are pretty hard in terms of passing.”

TAKUMA SATO
“It was a good day. Considering the amount of time we had in practice was relatively short, we learned a lot. We tried a couple of different setups to find out ride height, gearing and etc. as the team hasn’t been here for a long time. We made good progress; I’m reasonably happy with the balance. We will look at all of the data and hopefully continue to make progress tomorrow. (On Push to Pass:) Today we tried the extra boost; the extra power feels good. We need to work on the gearing for that but it seems to be good for overtaking as well as defending. I’m not sure how many times we will be able to use it or how long it will last each time but it is definitely a good tool for the race.”

GERRY HUGHES, Race Engineer for Sato
“Both Practice 1 and Practice 2 were productive sessions for us although I think that with the lack of consistent running due to red flags, we haven’t done as much of the program as we would have liked. Obviously it’s my first time here and I am having to come to grips with the particular characteristics of this Toronto street circuit. We have worked through a number of items on our program and whilst we are a bit disappointed to have slipped a little further adrift of Dario, who was quickest in both P1 and P2, we feel that there are still a number of changes that can have an affect on the car and hopefully we will continue to move forward in Practice 3 and qualifying tomorrow.”