Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Verizon IndyCar Series
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – April 11, 2014
SERVIA AND RAHAL ENDED THE PRACTICE DAY FOR THE TOYOTA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH 18TH AND 21ST FASTEST RESPECTIVELY
1) Simon Pagenaud 1:09.1488 / 102.457 mph
18) Oriol Servia 1:09.9926 / 101.222 mph
21) Graham Rahal 1:10.2469 / 100.856 mph
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 National Guard Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a frustrating day. The National Guard team worked really hard. We’re struggling so much with grip. I feel like I just cannot attack the car; I’m struggling to hang on. We have been working on a lot of stuff. I thought this would be a really good weekend for us, I still feel like it can be but we’re coming from the back now. There is a lot to catch up on.”
ORIOL SERVIA, No. 16 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “The day was difficult to define. We are working on the car. We’re still not really comfortable yet. Both Graham and I have had exactly the same comments from both sessions so that will definitely help our engineers go in one direction that we both feel we need to go. The other good thing is that although we aren’t happy, we’re still not that far off on the lap time, especially on old tires. We put new tires on at the end of the session but didn’t get a lap in. We’re one-half of a second off (the fastest time) which I think it pretty good because I felt I was more than that. I think we have gains to come our way if we can find a couple of good things with the car setup. I’m happy to knock the rust off. It’s good to come to Long Beach, a place I have driven on many times. At least I know the track.”
RLL IN LONG BEACH… 3 POLES, 6 PODIUMS IN 14 INDY CAR RACES FOR RLL AT LONG BEACH: This will mark the third time for RLL to compete in the Indy car race at Long Beach since 2003 when Michel Jourdain, Jr. won pole, led a race high 48 laps and was in the lead when his car stuck in gear on his final stop with seven laps to go and ultimately retired in 15th place. In their 14 previous Indy car races in Long Beach, the team entered 24 cars for drivers such as Bobby Rahal (1992-1998), Mike Groff (1994), Raul Boesel (1995), Bryan Herta (1996-1999), Max Papis (1999-2001), Kenny Brack (2000-2001), Jimmy Vasser (2002), Jourdain (2002-2003), Takuma Sato (2012), Graham Rahal (2013) and James Jakes (2013). In total, the team won three poles (Herta 1998, Vasser 2002, Jourdain, Jr. 2003); made five front row starts including an all-Team Rahal front row in 1998 (2nd – Rahal 1998, Brack 2001); earned their best finish of second place four times (Rahal 1992-1993, Vasser 2002, G. Rahal 2013) and earned six podiums (2nd – Rahal 1992-1993, Vasser 2002, G. Rahal 2013; 3rd – Herta 1998-1999).
NEXT UP: Practice will take place tomorrow morning from 10:00-10:45 a.m. PT. Qualifying will take place from 1:15-2:25 PM and air on NBCSN at 6 PM ET Saturday. Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com. The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will be televised live on NBCSN at 4:00 PM ET Sunday, April 13.
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