Sato tops Sebring test for Foyt

Takuma Sato was quickest on his debut for AJ Foyt Racing in the Sebring IndyCar test on Tuesday.

Ex-Formula 1 driver Sato joined American motorsport legend Foyt’s team from Rahal Letterman Lanigan over the winter.

He outpaced Ganassi’s Scott Dixon by half a tenth of a second.

“The team started with a set-up they knew, and I needed to feel the difference from what I’ve experienced, and I did feel some differences,” Sato said.

“Then we moved on to the testing programme and various set-up changes. They weren’t always positive but we learned from the negative changes too.

“I’m happy that we did some good lap times at the end of the day but it is only testing.”

Will Power was the fastest Chevrolet-powered driver for Penske in third, followed by Dario Franchitti.

Justin Wilson, who has not yet been officially confirmed with Dale Coyne Racing, completed the top five.

Graham Rahal was ninth fastest as he continued to get up to speed with new team Rahal Letterman Lanigan.

“I think we made some great gains from the morning to the afternoon,” said Rahal. “We gained about 0.6s or 0.7s in the afternoon while others didn’t gain anything.

“We’re not the fastest but we got ourselves in the ballpark by the end of the day. The car, handling-wise, is starting to come to us. I’m really pleased with the progress.”

AJ Allmendinger was 12th of the 13 cars present as he re-acclimatised to single-seaters with Penske.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                   Time     Gap
  1.  Takuma Sato          Foyt Dallara-Honda         51.947s
  2.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi Dallara-Honda      52.017s  + 0.070s
  3.  Will Power           Penske Dallara-Chevy       52.153s  + 0.206s
  4.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi Dallara-Honda      52.322s  + 0.375s
  5.  Justin Wilson        Coyne Dallara-Honda        52.327s  + 0.380s
  6.  Tony Kanaan          KV Dallara-Chevy           52.381s  + 0.434s
  7.  Helio Castroneves    Penske Dallara-Chevy       52.410s  + 0.463s
  8.  Graham Rahal         Rahal Dallara-Honda        52.413s  + 0.466s
  9.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi Dallara-Honda      52.439s  + 0.492s
 10.  Simona de Silvestro  KV Dallara-Chevy           52.442s  + 0.495s
 11.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher Dallara-Honda       52.498s  + 0.551s
 12.  AJ Allmendinger      Penske Dallara-Chevy       52.618s  + 0.671s
 13.  Oriol Servia         Panther/DRR Dallara-Chevy  52.690s  + 0.743s
 

See more IndyCar testing photos in the AUTOSPORT news gallery

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/indycar-news/indycar/sato-tops-sebring-test-for-foyt

Jeremy Allan Mayfield James Christopher McMurray Casey James Mears Juan Pablo Montoya Joseph Francis Nemechek III