Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – September 17, 2021
ASKEW SET THE SIXTH FASTEST TIME IN PRACTICE FOR THE FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF MONTEREY; RAHAL AND SATO WERE 17TH AND 19TH
1) Josef Newgarden 1:11.7125 / 112.349 mph
6) Oliver Askew 1:12.1516 / 111.665 mph
17) Graham Rahal 1:12.8486 / 110.596 mph
19) Takuma Sato 1:12.9923 / 110.379 mph
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “One practice in the books at Laguna Seca. We waited quite a while to go run and just missed it on the first tire set. I was in a lot of traffic, a lot of people were and unfortunately that traffic just kind of – on the good laps I missed the tire so by the time I went it was just too late. My fastest lap was also quite sloppy. Going through the corkscrew I had a huge moment and lost two to three tenths (of a second) in the exit there which cost me a lot. It is what it is, we’re not quite good enough here this weekend so far. We’ll put our heads down tonight and try and come up with some new ideas and go back at it tomorrow. I know with Oliver’s car they ran two sets of tires and it seemed like his second set was a lot better pace wise, much more competitive, so we are going to look at what they’re doing and hopefully get the United Rentals car up front.”
TAKUMA SATO, No. 30 Panasonic / Mi-Jack Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I’m very happy to be back in Laguna Seca — a fan favorite. I think we all really enjoy this challenging track. I missed the test so today was a little more challenging – only 10 laps I think. Tire degradation was quite big so you had to do it (your fast lap) within four laps. But at least we did a run on a Friday which for a long time we didn’t have it since some of the street courses so it’s really nice to get the three cars’ data tonight and go through all the analysis and get back tomorrow feeling better. I generally feel very positive and hopefully we have a stronger day tomorrow.”
OLIVER ASKEW, No. 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “First session out here at Laguna Seca, and my first time here in an Indy car. My last time I was here was in 2019 with Indy Lights. It’s fantastic to be back, it’s a super tricky circuit but very enjoyable when you get it right and it felt good today, ended up P6 in practice. It’s going to be important for us to build on that in practice 2 tomorrow and ultimately qualifying tomorrow afternoon. Our Hy-Vee Honda felt good today and we will see what happens tomorrow.”
RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING AT LAGUNA SECA … Will mark the 14th Indy car event for RLL at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and second since 12 consecutive races here from 1992-2003. The team has also competed in ALMS and IMSA races here from 2009-2020 as BMW Team RLL and has earned three wins, three poles and a total of 10 podium finishes to date – including pole and a second-place finish in 2019. The Indy car team has earned three wins, three poles and a total of six podiums (1st – Herta 1998-1999; Papis 2001; 2nd – Herta 1996; 3rd: B. Rahal 1992, Papis 1999) as well as three straight pole positions (Herta 1997-1999). Prior to the 2021 event, the team prepared a total of 23 Indy car entries for drivers Bobby Rahal (1992-98), Mike Groff (1994), Raul Boesel (1995), Bryan Herta (1996-99), Max Papis (1999-2001), Jimmy Vasser (2002), Michel Jourdain Jr. (2002-03), Graham Rahal (2019) and Takuma Sato (2019).
NEXT UP: Practice 2 will take place tomorrow from 10:00-10:45 a.m. PT and qualifying will take place from 1:35-2:50 p.m. ET. Peacock will broadcast all sessions live. Timing and Scoring information and live streaming video is also available for all sessions from www.indycar.com and includes live commentary. The Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey will be televised live on NBC beginning at 3 PM ET Sunday, September 19.