Qualifying Report: Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires
Posted by
Steve Wittich on Friday, July 28th 2017
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INDY LIGHTS PRESENTED BY
COOPER TIRES
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COOPER TIRES INDY LIGHTS GRAND PRIX OF MID-OHIO
POWERED BY MAZDA RACE 1
QUALIFYING REPORT
07.28.17
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Under partly cloudy skies at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires teams took to the track for practice and qualifying sessions ahead of their last double-header weekend of the season.
The Andretti Autosport Indy Lights quartet take to the 13-turn, 2.258-mile road course tomorrow for Race 1 this weekend. Coverage of Rounds 13 and 14 from Lexington, Ohio, air Sunday, July 30, at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.
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No. 98 Deltro Energy Mazda |
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Qualified second with a fastest lap of 1:12.0283, 0.6589 behind first
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Finished the morning practice session eighth with a fastest lap of 1:13.1064
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“I’m really happy with qualifying – it’s a really good bounce-back from this morning. Obviously, there’s still time to find because Santi (Urrutia) is a bit up the road, but we’re the best of the rest and I’m happy with that. Being 1.2 seconds off in this morning’s practice session, we came back a big margin to get P2. It’s awesome to see the team working and shows what we’re doing is the right thing.”
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No. 27 Synova Mazda |
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Qualified third with a fastest lap of 1:12.1561
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Finished this morning’s practice session second, 0.5007 seconds behind the leader
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“I think overall it’s a pretty good comeback for the No. 27 team. We had a good practice session this morning and I qualified P3. Inside the second row is a pretty good position here at Mid-Ohio. I feel like we left a lot today in qualifying – there was room for much better. We got caught out on all the yellows with other cars coming out in front of us from the pits on the quick laps. We had a lot of traffic. It’s frustrating, but I think we have a good race car for tomorrow.”
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No. 28 K-Line Insulators USA Mazda |
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Qualified ninth for tomorrow’s Race 1 with a fastest lap of 1:12.5227
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In order to avoid contact in Turn 11 with a spun car, Kellett went off track into the grass, making contact with the wall, cutting his practice session short
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“It was an interesting first day here at Mid-Ohio. We got caught up this morning in practice by a car that spun and I think I was the first car coming through when the yellow came out. I didn’t have time to slow down and my decision of going off track as opposed to hitting the other car for conservation of everyone’s equipment, that was pretty much what I had to do. We only got a few laps in this morning in that session, then just went right into qualifying. It was really tough – the track conditions were a lot different. A lot more grip this afternoon after the Indy cars have been out and the USF2000 had their qualifying and race. It was really challenging to adapt to the different conditions from this morning. I think we did a good job. If we didn’t have the moment, the spin coming out of Turn 2 and our lap taken away, we’d probably be top five. Overall, I’m happy with the car, just disappointed ending up ninth. We know the car is at pace, and I think we can be in contention for tomorrow.”
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No. 48 Journey Mazda |
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Qualified 10th for tomorrow’s Race 1 with a fastest lap of 1.12:6532
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Finished the morning practice session ninth, debuting his new No. 48 Journey Mazda color-shifting livery
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“It wasn’t the best qualifying session. We were close, there’s only 0.4 seconds from us to third or fourth where we’re trying to be in podium position. Our teammates are fast. We’ll look over some data and go back, be better in qualifying and push hard in the race tomorrow.”
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