Friday's Champ Car qualifying quotes from Houston GP

[NickHolt]

Contact: Kelly Brown, News Associate

Champ Car World Series

5350 West Lakeview Parkway S. Dr.

Indianapolis, IN 46268

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Cell: (317) 716-5448

kbrown@champcar.ws

 

FRIDAY QUALIFYING QUOTES

 

Sebastien Bourdais #1 McDonalds Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone – “The first run was a little difficult. The grip wouldn't come. Kind of kept going quicker and quicker. Felt like we really would have needed to extend the run, but we were running low on fuel so we had to pit. On the second run, obviously, like Will said, it's always great to pit out. All the credit to Graham and the team. We did a good job all together at Long Beach, put ourselves in that position. The whole McDonald's team did a great job again this morning at turning things around. I think the baseline wasn't all that great for that circuit, but we made some improvements and I felt much more comfortable this afternoon, and it paid off. The second run was not really much different from the setup, but it's small details that make it a whole different lap at the end.”

 

Will Power #5 Aussie Vineyards Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone – “It’s exactly what Sebastien had at Long Beach. You're back in the pits, there's a red flag just before the end, and everyone rushes out when the track is at its best. It's really hard to get a lap or a rhythm because everyone backs each other up. I think that sort of hindered us a bit. I don't think the reds are as grippy as they have been, like at Vegas. It's only day one. I think that we can go back, have a good look at everything, and come out with a pretty good car tomorrow and have a shot at the pole.”

 

Graham Rahal #2 Medi | Zone Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone – “Vegas was pretty difficult for not only myself but the entire team. Sebastien, as well. So, you know, then we went to Long Beach and finally started to get a little bit of our rhythm back. Then here it seems to be better so far. I really have to give all the credit I can to the whole MEDIZONE crew because, I mean, we've worked so hard. After having a couple of crashes in Vegas, then Long Beach was a tight turnaround, but they did it, and coming here fortunately we didn't have any problems in Long Beach, so that made it a little bit easier. But certainly this weekend's gone well so far. We'll just hope it continues.”

 

Justin Wilson #9 CDW Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone – “We have made some good progress today in the #9 CDW/RSPORTS car. I think that it has a lot more potential, but things are very positive right now. We definitely want to be on the front row this weekend, so we will continue to work hard for tomorrow’s final qualifying and see if we can’t get further up on the grid for Sunday’s race.”

 

Alex Tagliani #8 LXN2 Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone – “It is ok that we are fifth for now, it is a good thing that we have been able to be competitive all day and consistently in the top five. The #8 LXN2/RSPORTS car runs well and it will continue to compete up front. However, we have been struggling with a grip problem since the beginning of the season. We will work hard on searching for ways to fix that issue so we can make the appropriate changes. There seems to be a trend that our car is really good and running on top, then we have some slower moments. We need more consistency, but I think that we have a good car for this weekend and with a few changes we should be exactly where we want to be, higher up on the grid.”

 

Oriol Servia #3 INDECK Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone –“It was a decent lap, we still have some speed left in the car, I believe that we can be in the Top-3, I don’t think we have enough for pole position yet but tomorrow is another day. The car is pretty good, we were a few tenths quicker but just got caught out by the reds. But considering what I was doing last Friday it is an excellent result!”

 

Neel Jani #21 Red Bull-Gulfstream Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone – “Everyone is very close. I think two or three tenths and the Red Bull Gulfstream PKV Racing Team would be fourth or even third on the grid. So, every little thing counts. We have definitely improved the car and found something with the setup that makes the car handle better on street circuits. We still need to do a least another step and maybe two steps to catch Bourdais (Sebastien). I think the driver also needs to make another step and then we should be there. We will see tomorrow.”

 

Bruno Junqueira #19 Sonny’s Bar-B-Q Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone –“The traffic during qualifying today really screwed me up. I think that we could have been a few tenths quicker if it wasn’t for that. The car was off balance and we are going to have to work on correcting that if we are to qualify well for the race on Sunday. It is important that we stay consistent. The crew with hopefully figure out the problems and I will have a good race car for qualifying tomorrow.”

 

Mario Dominguez #7 Telmex/Banca Mifel Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone – “We just haven’t found the grip that we need for this track. We’ve made some changes that have improved the car but we just need more grip overall, specially coming out of the corners. The track is much better than last year, it is still bumpy but they have improved it quite a bit, especially around turn 5 which makes the whole lap way more bearable. I think once the track picks up more grip tomorrow our car should be a lot quicker so we are just going to keep working hard and give it all we’ve got tomorrow.”

 

Robert Doornbos #14 Muermans/Jumbo Supermarkten/Mediamall Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone– “We still have some work to do with the car, as it’s not great yet. I went out on the Red Bridgestone Potenza “Option” tires for the last run, but I made a small mistake in turn 8 and stalled the car. Because I brought out a red flag, my fastest time was taken away, but rules are rules. We’ll work hard for tomorrow and go out and attack in the second qualifying session.”

 

Tristan Gommendy #22 Pay By Touch-Megaspiera Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone – “This is a very difficult street circuit because of the bumps and the Pay By Touch MegaSpirea PKV Racing car had a handling problem today that really made it difficult for me. As a result on my last qualifying lap I missed a corner and went into the runoff area. My engineer, Yves Touron, and I need to go over all the data and get the car right for tomorrow’s qualifying, but I am confident that we will find a solution and move up the grid tomorrow.”

 

“Speedy” Dan Clarke #4 Ticketmaster/Synapse Power/The Australian Pink Floyd Show Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone -“We were obviously struggling a bit today. I couldn’t seem to get a clear lap, as there was a lot of traffic out there towards the end of the session. On my last lap there was a yellow in the last turn, which definitely cost me some time. We’re learning about the behavior of the car here every session, and we’ll just have to do better tomorrow.”

 

Katherine Legge #11 Dale Coyne Racing Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone -“We had some car issues today. We have a lot of work ahead of us to try and figure out how to get the car more competitive for tomorrow. The past couple of weeks we have been in the same situation and the crew have come through in giving me a competitive car for the race. We will continue to work hard and look forward to practice and qualifying tomorrow.”

 

Alex Figge #29 Imperial Bank Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone – "I experienced a huge amount of discomfort this morning in practice so I will be getting an MRI this afternoon. From here I will focus on recovery so we can log some miles in May. We've got several tests scheduled in the coming weeks I need to make sure I am recovered as those tests are essential."