By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
As Alexander Rossi and Simon Pagenaud fought tooth-and-nail in the final 15 laps of Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, Takuma Sato waited in the wings to pounce.
The Japanese driver had experience on his side, winning the race in 2017. However, as the top two passed back and forth, Sato was unable to sneak by either driver and came home third in his No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda.
“Our team did a great job to stretch the field and then get back to the pack,” said Sato, who pounced into contention late. “I think it took more than 100 laps. But I think it was brilliant.”
Following the red flag for a six-car accident with 22 laps to go, the ensuing restart saw Sat jump to the outside lane to advance to third spot. From there, he looked to take advantage of potential contact between the two two — contact that did not occur.
“There’s always a scenario,” he said. “If something happened between two — of course I was thinking, just make sure you’re not involved. You always want to have extra caution. You have to grab every single opportunity, just never give up, and just try to challenge all the time.”
Sato feels he had enough to stay in touch with Rossi and Pagenaud, however, lacked the straight-line speed to make anything happen.
“I think Alex and I could possibly battle each other at the end of the day,” he said. “But honestly, last eight laps I tried and tried and tried and I couldn’t get to Alex, so that means I think physically we were third today, which is — I think it’s still great result to the team, especially considering we were a lap down in 31st.”
Despite the loss, Sato was happy with the result. Third place was his second podium result of 2019 and his second at the 500. Overall, he was happy to be in position to grab win No. 2.
“It was very exciting,” he said. “P6, P5, P4 and finally got P3, and then I got everything I had. We were just flying all over the place with the temperature, and it was a great battle. It is a little bit of a pity that we couldn’t challenge for the win, but we got third under some very difficult circumstances, I think. It’s a huge credit to the team. So a big thank you to the team for getting me back.
“But I think it was a great race for the Indy 500, and I’m sure fans really enjoyed it.”