Takuma Sato maintained his dramatic reputation on Sunday as he made his IndyCar racing debut for the KV Racing team. The Japanese driver, who raced in Formula 1 between 2002 and 2006, lined up an impressed tenth for the rolling start in Brazil although a misjudged braking point resulted in retirement at the first corner.
As a dramatic season-opening weekend began on the streets of São Paulo, Sato - whose car will adopt a green and yellow Lotus Racing livery from the next race onwards - began to spin in the braking zone before collecting the Ganassi of 2008 Champion Scott Dixon, which was then hit by Helio Castroneves in the Penske; both other drivers were able to continue although Sato was out of contention immediately.
"After yesterday's practice session, we knew a lot of work had to be done," Japanese driver Sato said after the race. "The KV Racing Technology team did a great job in coming together this morning and I was able to improve my lap time by quite a lot."
Happy with his qualifying performance, Sato's emotions were somewhat different after the opening round of the season. "I was very disappointed with the start of the race," he continued. "It was very packed and there was a lot of dust.
"Unfortunately I got caught up in an accident at Turn 1; it was not a good memory for my first IndyCar race but seeing E.J. (Viso, team-mate) finish solid and the team working well together makes me feel overall that we have learned a lot and I look forward to my next race in St. Petersburg."
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