Sato Leads Honda Field in Practice at St. PetersburgThe 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series officially opened Friday on the downtown harborfront streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, with a pair of practice sessions in advance of Sunday’s Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

A.J. Foyt Racing’s Takuma Sato led the dozen Honda-powered competitors on Friday, with a best lap of 1:01.7703 around the 1.8-mile temporary street circuit, just 33 hundredths of a second off the day’s quickest time, set by Will Power of Team Penske.

Activities continue on Saturday with a final practice session, followed by “knockout” qualifying that will set the 25-car field for Sunday’s 110-lap race.  Ten laps longer than in previous years, the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will start at 12:30 p.m. EDT, with live television coverage on the NBC Sports Network.

Takuma Sato(Driver, #14 A.J. Foyt Racing Honda Dallara) fifth-quickest in Friday’s practice sessions at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg:  “It was a very productive day for us.  In the first session this morning, the car was a little bit outside of the balance that we wanted, but we made a good improvement over the lunch break and the car felt much better in the afternoon.  The Honda engine felt quite good.  We worked a lot on the mapping in the winter tests, and I can feel the engine is more powerful compared to last year.  We tested a couple of things and got some good information, so hopefully we can make another step forward tomorrow.”