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IndyCar
INDYCAR: Sato, Honda Top Torrential Rain-Filled Barber P2
It rained hard, then it rained harder in the second and final practice session on Friday, led by Takuma Sato, Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon.
It rained hard, then it rained harder in the second and final practice session on Friday.
Takuma Sato set his best lap--a 1:18.86--before the big downpour fell, and the Honda-powered Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver used the light rain early in the one-hour session to his advantage, turning three total laps before parking the car.
"It was a dryer condition to begin with, which was relative," Sato told SPEED.com. "It was wet enough to use a wet tire, and obviously I didn't try [running in] the real, real wet session. It's a question of if you've got a good chance of raining over Saturday an Sunday, you should run it, but it's not in the forecast tomorrow so we didn't do it."
Sato, who led in the rain at Brazil last year, seems to love the challenge of running in slippery conditions.
"I'm pretty confident in a wet race," he explained. The car has more downforce, but seems a little tricky with the turbo engines in the wet conditions."
Sebastien Bourdais placed his Lotus-engined No. 7 second, tuning a 1:19.27 on his sixth lap, and two-time series champion Scott Dixon took third with a lap of 1:19.38 in his Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda.
“This place is strange because I experienced the same thing last year," said Bourdais. "I was the only one last year to turn laps in the rain, and the car felt really, really nice in the wet conditions. It’s very tough to drive here in dry conditions because it’s really slippery and tough to get the balance right. And today, same thing; this morning we went out and we were struggling with balance and the car had some rear issues and understeer. It’s OK, but it’s not easy. And then we go out in the wet and the thing is like fixed. It has just a little push. The rear is there and we can push it. I had a great time driving in the wet conditions.”
Tony Kanaan was fourth and his former teammate, Marco Andretti, completed the top 5.
Lotus DRR's Oriol Servia turned just two laps, but the last one was costly.
"He went out, came in, shut the engine off and it wouldn't re-fire," DRR co-owner Dennis Reinbold told SPEED.com. "The Lotus guys plugged in and said we'd need to change the motor."
Like Simon Pagenaud last Friday in the second practice session at St. Pete, Servia's "unapproved" engine change will cost the Spaniard 10 grid spots in the race.
The session was notable for the lack of incidents, as the 17 drivers who completed laps remained on the tarmac.
Team Penske's three drivers, A.J. Foyt Racing's Mike Conway, Schmidt Hamilton's Simon Pagenaud and Ed Carpenter all had their cars on pit lane, but elected not to run.
In a leftover note from the morning session, Dale Coyne Racing's Justin Wilson did not make it out after a fuel injector fire in P1 did more damage than expected. A representative from Honda informed SPEED.com the team and the manufacturer are working to replace the damaged parts in order to use the engine for the rest f the event.
Rank, Driver , Diff., Best Lap
1 Takuma Sato 0 1:18.8684
2 Sebastien Bourdais 0.4056 1:19.2740
3 Scott Dixon 0.5157 1:19.3841
4 Tony Kanaan 1.0156 1:19.8840
5 Marco Andretti 1.1719 1:20.0403
6 Rubens Barrichello 1.2804 1:20.1488
7 Ryan Hunter-Reay 1.3955 1:20.2639
8 Graham Rahal 2.5653 1:21.4337
9 EJ Viso 2.6354 1:21.5038
10 Simona de Silvestro 2.6504 1:21.5188
11 Dario Franchitti 2.8049 1:21.6733
12 James Hinchcliffe 2.8448 1:21.7132
13 Charlie Kimball 3.3655 1:22.2339
14 Katherine Legge 4.1168 1:22.9852
15 Josef Newgarden 4.6545 1:23.5229
16 James Jakes 5.4990 1:24.3674
17 Oriol Servia 5.6628 1:24.5312
18 Alex Tagliani
19 Ryan Briscoe
20 Simon Pagenaud
21 Helio Castroneves
22 Mike Conway
23 Will Power
24 Ed Carpenter
PHOTOS: Click Here or on the image below to view INDYCAR: Barber Motorsports Park 2012
Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. He also contributes to Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett on Twitter.
Takuma Sato set his best lap--a 1:18.86--before the big downpour fell, and the Honda-powered Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver used the light rain early in the one-hour session to his advantage, turning three total laps before parking the car.
"It was a dryer condition to begin with, which was relative," Sato told SPEED.com. "It was wet enough to use a wet tire, and obviously I didn't try [running in] the real, real wet session. It's a question of if you've got a good chance of raining over Saturday an Sunday, you should run it, but it's not in the forecast tomorrow so we didn't do it."
Sato, who led in the rain at Brazil last year, seems to love the challenge of running in slippery conditions.
"I'm pretty confident in a wet race," he explained. The car has more downforce, but seems a little tricky with the turbo engines in the wet conditions."
Sebastien Bourdais placed his Lotus-engined No. 7 second, tuning a 1:19.27 on his sixth lap, and two-time series champion Scott Dixon took third with a lap of 1:19.38 in his Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda.
“This place is strange because I experienced the same thing last year," said Bourdais. "I was the only one last year to turn laps in the rain, and the car felt really, really nice in the wet conditions. It’s very tough to drive here in dry conditions because it’s really slippery and tough to get the balance right. And today, same thing; this morning we went out and we were struggling with balance and the car had some rear issues and understeer. It’s OK, but it’s not easy. And then we go out in the wet and the thing is like fixed. It has just a little push. The rear is there and we can push it. I had a great time driving in the wet conditions.”
Tony Kanaan was fourth and his former teammate, Marco Andretti, completed the top 5.
Lotus DRR's Oriol Servia turned just two laps, but the last one was costly.
"He went out, came in, shut the engine off and it wouldn't re-fire," DRR co-owner Dennis Reinbold told SPEED.com. "The Lotus guys plugged in and said we'd need to change the motor."
Like Simon Pagenaud last Friday in the second practice session at St. Pete, Servia's "unapproved" engine change will cost the Spaniard 10 grid spots in the race.
The session was notable for the lack of incidents, as the 17 drivers who completed laps remained on the tarmac.
Team Penske's three drivers, A.J. Foyt Racing's Mike Conway, Schmidt Hamilton's Simon Pagenaud and Ed Carpenter all had their cars on pit lane, but elected not to run.
In a leftover note from the morning session, Dale Coyne Racing's Justin Wilson did not make it out after a fuel injector fire in P1 did more damage than expected. A representative from Honda informed SPEED.com the team and the manufacturer are working to replace the damaged parts in order to use the engine for the rest f the event.
Rank, Driver , Diff., Best Lap
1 Takuma Sato 0 1:18.8684
2 Sebastien Bourdais 0.4056 1:19.2740
3 Scott Dixon 0.5157 1:19.3841
4 Tony Kanaan 1.0156 1:19.8840
5 Marco Andretti 1.1719 1:20.0403
6 Rubens Barrichello 1.2804 1:20.1488
7 Ryan Hunter-Reay 1.3955 1:20.2639
8 Graham Rahal 2.5653 1:21.4337
9 EJ Viso 2.6354 1:21.5038
10 Simona de Silvestro 2.6504 1:21.5188
11 Dario Franchitti 2.8049 1:21.6733
12 James Hinchcliffe 2.8448 1:21.7132
13 Charlie Kimball 3.3655 1:22.2339
14 Katherine Legge 4.1168 1:22.9852
15 Josef Newgarden 4.6545 1:23.5229
16 James Jakes 5.4990 1:24.3674
17 Oriol Servia 5.6628 1:24.5312
18 Alex Tagliani
19 Ryan Briscoe
20 Simon Pagenaud
21 Helio Castroneves
22 Mike Conway
23 Will Power
24 Ed Carpenter
PHOTOS: Click Here or on the image below to view INDYCAR: Barber Motorsports Park 2012
Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. He also contributes to Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett on Twitter.
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