Sato encouraged by Aguri pace

The Super Aguri driver put the power of his Honda engine to good use on the long straight of Indianapolis to place himself in 22nd position, 2.3 seconds off the pace.

A pleased Sato admitted it had been one of his best days of the season.

"It was certainly one of our better days so far this season," said Sato. "I am very pleased that we seem to be competitive here. We still found it hard to find the right set-up today and I was struggling through the infield section as we had an oversteer balance issue.

"But we had good straight-line speed which is vital for this circuit and we made good progress throughout both sessions, so it was a good day."

Sato's happiness was in contrast with his teammate Franck Montagny, who endured a poor day after covering just two laps in the afternoon session. The Frenchman failed to set a time.

"It was not a good testing day for me," he said. "This morning was quite good and everything worked okay, but we went out a bit early which affected the tyres. So after this it was very hard to find something good for the set-up of the car and we also had a small electrical problem towards the end of the session.

"I then made a mistake into turn 4 at the beginning of the second session. The car was very pointy and I spun and finished the session there, so overall it was not a good day."