RICHARD ANTINUCCI WILL MAKE HIS DEBUT AT A CANADIAN VENUE IN SUNDAY'S HONDA INDY TORONTO
The Italian-American takes 23rd spot at the Ontario street circuit, and tomorrow he aims at making the best use of his sets of red tyres
Saturday, July 11, 2009
SATURDAY'S NOTES
Richard Antinucci has raced on three continents, but as yet he had never taken part to a race on Canadian soil. He's to fill this void tomorrow taking part to his second IndyCar race at the 1.755-mile, 11-turn Toronto circuit, where he'll move from Row 12. The San Diego-based driver had had a grim Friday practice, and Team 3G was set to propel him back into the picture, but the morning practice was delayed by a heavy downpour and then unfolded on a damp track, forcing the team to try the set-up in qualifying, where it proved a disappointment. The only silver lining to the dismaying Saturday was that Antinucci safeguarded his sets of alternate tyres, and the softer compund is deemed quicker than the black he had fitted to his car today, helping his attempt to rally throughout the race.
RICHARD'S TAKE
“After Friday's practice we had some tech talk within the team aimed at fixing the understeer problem I was experiencing yesterday. Sadly, focusing on the front rollcentre proved the wrong direction to go and this afternoon my Dallara-Honda was pushing like hell and things just got worse. As we, and morevoer I, lack track time after having joined the fray at mid-season, we may be forced to use qualifying as a development session, in this case to no avail. Obviously we can not test at most venues and there's a toll to pay there, but it's quite frustrating when this kind of things happen as I am convinced that our car with a proper set-up could turn a lap at 1m02s.”
Saturday, July
11, 2009 : Honda Indy Toronto Qualifying 1. Dario
Franchitti 1.01.0249 Avg speed 103.532mph
(166.618kph) 2. Will
Power 1.01.2851 3. Graham
Rahal 1.01.3301 4. Justin
Wilson 1.01.5157 5. Alex
Tagliani 1.01.6980 6. Mike
Conway 1.02.0090 7. Robert
Doornbos 1.01.4419 8. Scott
Dixon 1.01.4718 9. Raphael
Matos 1.01.5348 10. Helio
Castroneves 1.01.7954 11. Ryan
Briscoe 1.01.8575 12. Ryan
Hunter-Reay 1.01.9680 13. Mario
Moraes 1.01.9704 14. Tomas
Scheckter 1.01.8681 15. Paul
Tracy 1.01.9730 16. E.J.
Viso 1.02.1577 17. Marco
Andretti 1.02.2138 18. Danica
Patrick 1.02.5839 19. Ed
Carpenter 1.02.5907 20. Tony
Kanaan 1.02.6556 21. Dan
Wheldon 1.02.8411 22. Hideki
Mutoh 1.03.0413 23. 1.04.5132