Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma – Sonoma Raceway
IZOD IndyCar Series
RACE NOTES/QUOTES – Sunday, August 26, 2012
SATO RETIRED FROM THE GOPRO INDY GRAND PRIX OF SONOMA AFTER ENGINE FAILURE
TAKUMA SATO, No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a difficult weekend. The team worked so hard to find a good balance under speed. We made some good progress over the weekend but it was never fast enough to be what we wanted and in the end, unfortunately, we had engine failure so it was a very short race. It was a shame because we made some setup changes after the morning warm-up that I felt were positive changes. I’m looking forward to returning to Baltimore. We should be competitive as we were in other street course races this year.”
TOM ANDERSON, Managing Director Motorsport Operations: “Unfortunately it was a very disappointing weekend. We had a difficult test here and were unable to put a finger on the handling characteristics needed here to match the new 2012 car and Firestone tires and were a bit off all weekend. Unfortunately when things are running downhill they run way downhill. This is going to compound our problem here with load-in being Wednesday at noon in Baltimore so there is a little extra work for the guys tonight to finish up with an engine change so we can get this engine back to Honda and we can investigate an un-characteristic problem here on this motor. This engine change is going to cost us a 10-grid penalty in Baltimore. We have been extremely strong on street courses this season and are looking forward to Baltimore and hope that we can qualify extremely well to overcome that 10-grid penalty and be a factor in the race.”
NEXT UP: The Grand Prix of Baltimore will take place next weekend. The race will be televised live on NBC Sports Network at 2:00 p.m. ET Sunday, September 2.