Practice Report: Edmonton Indy
James Hinchcliffe, Team GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, No. 27
Hinchcliffe finished today’s afternoon practice in the fourth position after leading earlier in the session. He was 18th in the morning session.
“Today was an educational day, I guess. We didn’t have the strongest first session as a team. We were just struggling a bit with finding some grip out there and, as is sort of typical Andretti Autosport form, in between sessions we sat down, worked pretty hard at it and came back certainly a lot stronger for the second session.
“We’re still getting used to this track – it’s only the second time that we’ve raced here in this configuration as a series and with the limited running we had last year because of the rain that we had and things like that, there’s still quite a lot to learn… and obviously there’s a new car here as well. We also have new tires – last year we came with a road course tire and this year we’re here with a street course tire. There’s a bunch of learning to do but we’re getting there. We’re chipping away at it. It’s good to be in the top five heading into day two and hopefully we can keep that progress going. But, man… it’s tough out there. It’s very competitive and it’s very tough to get a lap together because all these hairpins are so inviting, and it’s so easy to overshoot it by a tiny bit or break too early and lose a ton of time. I’m happy with where we ended up with the Go Daddy car and we’ll keep chipping away at it tomorrow.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay, Team DHL/Dr Pepper Chevrolet, No. 28
Coming into the weekend on a three-race win streak, Hunter-Reay, the IZOD IndyCar Series points leader, was eighth quickest in the day’s second practice session.
“We had a rough start to the day, but we really improved the car. We’ve come a long way to end up eighth, and we have a long way to go to be closer to the front for qualifying. We’re just lacking overall grip, but we definitely have a lot of communication within the team, so we’ll compare notes tonight. You know, if there’s one little detail that’s off, that could make a big difference, and having teammates allows you to maybe find something you wouldn’t have on your own. It’s been a trend for Andretti Autosport to improve the cars each day, so I expect to be better tomorrow.”
Marco Andretti, Team Dr Pepper Chevrolet, No. 26
Andretti was the quickest of the three Andretti cars in this morning’s first practice session. He was 14th quickest in the day’s second session.
“There are long straights and tight turns here at Edmonton, so you need a car that’s good getting into the corner – good on the brakes – and a car that’s good getting off of each corner. You have to have both. I think we’re getting there. We locked up the tires on what would have easily been our fastest lap, so I know there’s more speed in the car.”
Source: Andretti Autosport, Press Release
The post Andretti Autosport 2012 IICS Edmonton Indy Post-Day 1 Practice Report appeared first on Catchfence.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/catchfence/~3/MsHYQYD2o4Q/
No comments:
Post a Comment