INDYCAR

Sato appears at the end, beats Pagenaud and leads the afternoon session of collective testing in Phoenix. Kanaan is 3rd

The first Indy collective test session in Phoenix was quite busy from the second hour. With the right to a final full of changes of position, this Friday afternoon test (9) served to show that 2018 has everything to really be a year of great balance.
Takuma Sato was the one who led the session in one of his first contacts with RLL, a new team for 2018. The Japanese man turned 19s673, beating Simon Pagenaud in the fastest time of just 044.
Foyt performed quite impressively. The 'Brazilian' team had great performance all the time and stayed with Tony Kanaan and Matheus Leist in third and fourth respectively. The fifth place was with Sébastien Bourdais, companion of Pietro Fittipaldi in Dale Coyne.

Takuma Sato on board new car

The afternoon session of the Indy collective test in Phoenix began punctually at 6pm (in Brasília). The first 15 minutes were slow laps and only 11 riders on the track. From the group, Josef Newgarden, Marco Andretti, Will Power and Alexander Rossi were the fastest.Near the 15-minute workout, the Indy fan was reunited with a traditional piece of oval racing: the yellow flag for track inspection. However, the drive was brief and soon the route was again occupied by the pilots.The following minutes were of sporadic appearances of the most different pilots. But none of them left for a quick turn. Newgarden, leader, for example, walked above 34s. Everything indicated that the big drive on the track would happen only in the final hour of the three available in the afternoon.The monotony of the session continued until the moment James Hinchcliffe decided to give a heated in the joke. The Canadian gave the first lap that was actually fast in the day, turning 20s301. Minutes later, Kyle Kaiser followed in the footsteps of the Schmidt Peterson rider and left the Juncos in second with 20s604.The first of the three hours of activity was completed and four other drivers were starting to tighten their pace as well: Gabby Chaves, Sébastien Bourdais, Spencer Pigot and Charlie Kimball were among the group of 20s.



Gabriel Curty