Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Chevrolet
IZOD IndyCar Series
QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES — Saturday, June 2, 2012
SATO QUALIFIED 12TH FOR THE CHEVROLET
POLE: Scott Dixon 1:10.3162 / 105.978 mph (set in Round 3)
12th: Takuma Sato 1:11.8122 / 103.771 mph (set in Round 2)
TAKUMA SATO, No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a difficult day. We did make some progress on the car balance from yesterday in the morning practice session but we were no where near where we wanted to be on the time sheets. We made some changes and the car behaved better with the alternate Firestone tire and I was able to commit more in qualifying. There is still a lot of work to do but we should be pleased considering it was our best qualifying of the year and we made it to Round 2. We will go through the data and continue to try to improve the car for the race tomorrow. It is difficult to overtake on this track but we will work hard to improve our position with good strategy. It is so easy to lose control of your car here that you need to maintain good concentration.”
FAST FACTS: Earned his best starting position for 2012 of 12th place for his first race in
GERRY HUGHES, Race Engineer: “We are making steady progress at a circuit that Takuma nor I know and the team hasn’t been to since 2008. We are just chipping away at it. We still have a lot to learn and a lot of time to make up but we will try to give Takuma a good car for the race. All things being equal, we should start 11th on the grid which is his best qualifying performance of 2012 to date so we can only go forward from there.”
1 WIN, 2 PODIUMS FOR RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING AT
NEXT UP: Morning warm-up will take place from 10:45-11:15 a.m. ET and the 90-lap Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix will be televised live beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC on Sunday, June 3. Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com.