Practice Report: Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama

BIRMINGHAM April 22, 2016Takuma Sato and Jack Hawksworth delivered a one-two punch in practice today as they topped the 21-car field posting the fastest times overall at Barber Motorsports Park, the beautiful but challenging 2.3-mile road course outside of Birmingham.

Sato clocked a lap time of 1 minute, 7.2157 seconds for a speed of 123.186mph, while Hawksworth was within four-thousandths of a second of that time and a speed of 123.178mph--a testament to the team's preparation of the ABC Supply Hondas. It was the first time since becoming a two-car team last year that they were one-two in a session of any kind.

Nice day for our ABC Supply team, said Larry Foyt, president of AJ Foyt Racing.We have to really focus on keeping the cars towards the front for qualifying as it's so important for the race here, but it is a nice feeling to see the speed displayed by the team and drivers today.

Honda-powered cars claimed four of the top six spots - James Hinchcliffe was third and Graham Rahal was sixth. Chevy-powered cars driven by Sebastien Bourdais and Will Power were fourth and fifth overall.

"It's been a very good day for the ABC Supply/AJ Foyt Racing team, said Sato.There's been good preparation--this is not the result of just one single day. It was the winter testing and especially the last test here because the weather was warmer than usual and that gave us a good foundation and understanding of the car. We had a few races since then and gained an even better understanding. The engineering department did a tremendous job, working in so much detail and bringing everything together. The car and the Honda engine are working really well.

Although clearly enjoying the moment, he cautioned, It's only a test day, but it's a great feeling because the competition level is so high and we are on top of the game today. We'll go through the data and look for where we can improve. In qualifying the red tire could behave differently, so all is not perfect but I think we learned a lot and it's been very positive.\"

Hawksworth too was smiling after the session. He was second quickest in both sessions.

It's been a really good day, the 25-year-old Brit said.We were quick in practice 1 and quick in practice 2 so it shows the consistency of the ABC Supply Honda. Takuma was P-5 and P-1 so we were in the top-five both sessions which is a good practice day in terms of speed. The feeling of the car was really good and we found some stuff right at the end of the day which we were really happy with. We'll sit down tonight and go through everything with the guys and try to execute in qualifying tomorrow. Hopefully we've ironed out our issues and we can put a really strong day together tomorrow and continue this. We need a good third practice, go out in qualifying and give it the beans and hopefully put it near the front.

The teams have a 45-minute morning practice. At 4:00 p.m. ET, the Firestone Fast Six qualifying rounds will be broadcast live on the NBC Sports Network, which will also broadcast the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama Sunday afternoon starting at 3:00 p.m. ET.