Takuma Sato received a penalty after race control determined he impeded Marco Andretti during qualifying for the 106th Running of the Indianapolis 500.
The 45-year-old Japanese pilot finished up his maiden run but did not utilize the cooldown lane and instead remained on track as Andretti began his warm-up lap for his qualifying attempt. The two found each other in Turn 3 and Andretti was forced to hit the brakes momentarily to evade the two-time Indy 500 winner, thus temporarily stalling momentum for the No. 98 Andretti Herta Autosport Honda.
Interference for Takuma Sato? 🤔
Marco Andretti was not happy with the two-time #Indy500 winner for not being in the service lane as Andretti was coming to green. pic.twitter.com/Is1RX2JuGk
— IndyCar on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) May 21, 2022
After a significant amount of time to make a decision following the incident, IndyCar officials opted to take action by voiding Sato’s first qualifying attempt of 232.196 mph (four-lap average). In turn, Sato will be forced to make another attempt in the No. 51 Dale Coye Racing with Rick Ware Racing Honda in hopes to advance into Sunday’s Fast 12; only positions 13-33 are locked in for Saturday’s qualifying bout.
Despite the penalty, IndyCar officials denied Andretti another ‘first attempt’ to replace the impacted initial run, which was also hit with a momentary electrical issue that caused problems.
