Japanese veteran Sato ran only four laps in the morning’s two hour session, unhappy with the aero balance of his car, but shone in the afternoon to top the timesheets at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The 2017 and 2020 Indy winner got a strong tow from several cars on his 63rd of 64 laps and lapped the 2.5-mile oval in 39.311s at an average speed of 228.939mph.
Despite his best effort receiving tow assists, Sato made up most of his speed on the opposition in the turns as his trap speeds were between fourth and fifth quickest.
Opening practice pacesetter Scott Dixon was second fastest on a very promising day for Chip Ganassi Racing, in which all five Honda-powered entries finished in the top nine.
NASCAR legend and IndyCar rookie Jimmie Johnson clocked the third fastest time ahead of Marcus Ericsson in fourth, while reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou was sixth and 2013 Indy winner Tony Kanaan ninth.
Four of the Ganassi cars lay between third and eighth on the no-tow charts.
The top two no-tow speeds came from Ed Carpenter Racing entries of fifth-placed Rinus VeeKay and his three-time Indy pole-winning team owner Ed Carpenter, who was only 29th overall.
Behind Sato’s rookie team-mate David Malukas in seventh, Josef Newgarden was quickest of the Team Penske entries in eighth, while the fastest Andretti Autosport driver was 2020 polesitter Marco Andretti in his first IndyCar outing since last year’s event. The 2006 runner-up completed the top 10, just shading team-mate Devlin deFrancesco.
Marco Andretti was on good form, the 2020 pole-winner the fastest of the Andretti entries
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
In the Indy 500-only Dreyer & Reinbold Motorsport squad, Sage Karam was an excellent third in the morning session behind Dixon and Ericsson, while Santino Ferrucci clocked in the sixth-fastest time (and second-fastest of the no-tow efforts). But the pair had slipped to 23rd and 33rd by the afternoon.
Meanwhile, DragonSpeed with Cusick Motorsports driver Stefan Wilson completed his refresher course at IMS and went on to manage a best average speed of 222.232mph in the 10 laps he completed in FP2.
Wilson’s Chevrolet-powered car, which is on loan from AJ Foyt Racing after being raced by Tatiana Calderon in last weekend’s Grand Prix of Indianapolis, appeared well-prepared following its conversion from road course to superspeedway spec.
The 33rd and last entry to be announced is largely staffed by DragonSpeed’s IMSA SportsCar Championship LMP2 team, while various equipment has been lent to the team by Andretti Autosport, Juncos Hollinger Racing, and Team Penske.
IndyCar Indianapolis 500 FP2 results
IndyCar Indianapolis 500 FP1 results