March 2012

“It was a very productive day," said Sato.  "After the test here in late February we came back with a much better understanding. Today the conditions were a lot warmer than in February so the car responded different.  I was reasonably happy with the balance and hoped that we could improve in the afternoon but unfortunately it rained during the second session and we only ran a couple of laps. We made some changes to the car between sessions and although it was wet conditions, it felt better so I hope we have a strong package tomorrow.”

“It was an exciting race!" said Sato.  "I’m very pleased to put the Rahal Letterman Lanigan car in that position for their return to IndyCar and it was something I never imagined would happen today; especially after struggling in the practice sessions.  But we made a good improvement in the warm-up today. It was damp conditions so it was hard to know just how good the car was but it did feel good; I was comfortable. I really enjoyed racing today, battling through the field to come up to the front.  Every restart there was lots of overtaking and the guys did a great job and made a good call. I am so disappointed that we had a mechanical failure and couldn’t get the resulted we worked hard for.  But, it was encouraging though.”

“It was the first day of the season and basically it was a trouble-free day which is very important," said Sato. "We collected as much data as possible and had a long list of things to do today but the learning process was quite good.  It was good to see the boys able to work on pit stops in a race environment for the first time too. We will continue to work hard tomorrow.”