Crashes Mar The Day For Sato, Larson At Indy 500 Open Test
SPEEDWAY, Ind. — The second day of open testing for the Indianapolis 500 brought both more speed and consequently, more crashes.
After every driver coming through the first day of testing on Wednesday (mostly) unscathed, the second day saw drivers try something that has never been done before in April testing: qualifying simulations.
Something you usually do not see until Fast Friday well into the Month of May, drivers and teams were given the Fast Friday boost on Thursday so they could test their cars for the first time qualifying trim with the new hybrid engine. Alex Palou offered his thoughts on how the hybrids handled the extra boost.
“I expected to have slower speeds, honestly, Palou said. “We saw many 232s, right? I think that’s pretty good. Driver feel-wise, it doesn’t really change.”
The changes were felt for Kyle Larson. he said after Wednesday’s session that it was a challenge getting a feel for the “hybrid stuff” as he put it. Larson struggled to get the car up to speed in his qualifying trim Thursday. In fact, his day came to an early end when during a sim run he slapped the outside wall in Turn 1. It crippled his Arrow McLaren Chevy’s suspension.
“I just was starting by qualifying pass and it got really tight,” Larson said. “I fought understeer yesterday and it carried over to today. But, I’m glad to have crashed my first IndyCar and survive. We need to work on the balance of the car.”
Lap after lap was turned on the day as many of the 34 drivers entered to try and qualify struggled to get an unimpeded four-lap run. In qualifying trim, drivers ideally need to have a clear track ahead of them in order to avoid the aid of an aerodynamic tow from a car in front of them. This makes it difficult to get a true sense of the car in it’s qualifying setup.
The man who was fastest for a while in the morning session was Takuma Sato. He was among the top five in race trim on Wednesday, and he turned a best lap without a tow at 232.565 mph. But, in trying to best that effort, he crashed his Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing Honda. Sato got loose in Turn 1 totaling the rear end of his car.
Once his car was cleared, drivers had just a few more minutes to get some qualifying sim in before the mid-day break. In the afternoon cars would return to their race day setups.
Before that happened, though, Scott McLaughlin would pick up where he left off from last year. As the 2024 pole sitter, McLaughlin uncorked a non-tow lap at 232.686 mph. That would be the fastest of the 34 drivers for the day.
“Felt like we got through a lot from a hybrid perspective, said McLaughlin. “overall really solid balance to kick off the month of May. The car is certainly different with the extra weight and whatnot. I think speaking to a lot of the drivers, I think we all concur on the same thoughts: it’s different.”
After lunch, drivers filed back out for more testing in race day setups, by the end of which Alex Palou was the fastest on the day at 223.993 mph. Once again, Honda dominated the leaderboard with nine of the top ten fastest drivers driving a Honda-powered car.
The final gun sounded at just after 4:00 pm EST, which marked the end of any oval running at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway until Indy 500 practice opens Tuesday, May 13th.
Drivers and teams will now return their focus to their road-course cars as they ship them down south to Birmingham, where Barber Motorsports Park awaits them for the IndyCar Grand Prix of Alabama.