Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama
Verizon IndyCar Series
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – April 25, 2014
RAHAL AND SERVIA ENDED THE PRACTICE DAY FOR THE HONDA INDY GRAND PRIX OF ALABAMA 19TH AND 22ND FASTEST RESPECTIVELY
1) Ryan Hunter-Reay 1:08.7836 / 120.378 mph
19) Graham Rahal 1:09.6552 / 118.871 mph
22) Oriol Servia 1:09.8695 / 118.507 mph
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 National Guard Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We’re obviously still learning. There are still some things we have to figure out and some time to be found but at the end of the day, we aren’t that far off time-wise. You look at the time sheets and it looks like both of our cars are struggling but when you are only eight-tenths (of a second) off (fast time), yet you’re 19th, it’s a difficult thing. If you find less than one-tenth (of a second) a corner, you are right up there with those guys. That’s what we’ve got to do, just keep working and find more speed. I feel like there is potential here. We found some things that worked at the end of the session. I didn’t get the best out of my tire run. I don’t know what I did but the tires only lasted me a lap so I have to figure that out. Overall I think we will be alright.”
ORIOL SERVIA, No. 16 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We improved the car from the first to second session but at the end (of Practice 2) we got derailed a little bit by a downshift issue and separate fuel pressure issue. But I’m still not happy with the car. I think we still have a lot to gain by finding the right setup. This place is very hard on the tires so if you are a little bit off on balance, it will just eat one end or the other. Its tough, we just need to keep at it. That’s what we did at Long Beach and by race day we had one of the best cars out there. I’m still confident we can do that here.”
RLL AT BARBER …. This will mark the third IndyCar race for the team at Barber Motorsports Park (BMP). In 2013, Rahal set a lap time fast enough to progress to Round 2 and qualify in the top-12 if he had been in Group 2 but he was in Group 1 and ultimately qualified 21st. He had to pit for a new nose on the opening lap after the field checked up and he hit Servia. He moved up to 12th place but ran out of fuel on the final lap due to a malfunction in the fueling system and dropped to 21st. James Jakes qualified 11th in 2013 but had to pit early in the race when the camber shims fell out of the left rear upright which put him two laps down to the leader. He soldiered on through fueling issues, set the fastest lap of the race and finished 23rd. In 2012, Takuma Sato set the third fastest time in Friday’s first practice and was fastest in the wet second session but traffic limited his qualifying performance to 16th. In the race he passed four cars for 12th place on red alternate tires but struggled on primary tires and ultimately retired in 24th place due to mechanical failure after 52/90 laps.
NEXT UP: Practice will take place tomorrow morning from 10:00-10:45 a.m. PT. Qualifying will take place from 2:00-3:10 PM and air on NBCSN at 1 AM ET Sunday. Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com. The Honda Indy GP of Alabama will be televised live on NBCSN at 2:30 PM ET Sunday, April 27.
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