Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Callum Ilott and Agustin Canapino struggled to qualify for Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Ilott’s day didn’t get off to a good start after he crashed heavily, having hit the curbing at Turn 5 in practice, and will start the race from 22nd place. Speaking following the action, he commend, saying:
It’s been a frustrating day and I think we were stuffed by not having any knowledge of the track changes where I went off in Practice 2. I approached that corner in the same way as I had yesterday (Friday) and this time I got bitten on the arse. “Not having any experience of the greens (tire) meant we went into qualifying a bit blind and the car just wasn’t in the right window. I managed to scrap a reasonable lap time out of it but it wasn’t ideal.“It’s been a tough day for everyone, but tomorrow’s a new one and we have to make sure we’re on top of it for the race so we can try and work our way forward.
Agustin Canapino starts the race from 26th place and speaking following the action he commented saying:
I think it’s been a good qualifying for my first time in Long Beach – one second off the leader which isn’t bad. “I struggled a little bit on my second outing with the new tyres, but I’m happy with the start to my weekend. “Tomorrow, I hope we can have a good race and take some points.
Juncos Hollinger Racing Team Principal and co-owner Ricardo Juncos commented saying:
It’s been a very difficult weekend so far. Yesterday, we were really fast with Callum and everything was looking really good. Then Agustín hit the wall and that put him completely outside.
“Today, the race track changed because they added some kerbing in one of the corners which wasn’t there yesterday. Callum hit the bottom of the car on it and crashed. So, that meant he missed the whole session and we lost the practice with the green tires.
“So the first time we used the car with the green tires was in qualifying and we had massive understeer. That showed in our quali times, but I think the pace with the black tires was really strong for both drivers and we’re looking forward for the race tomorrow.
“Big thanks to the team for fixing Callum’s car in time for qualifying. It was a big team effort and I’m happy to see that.
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- AGUSTIN HUGO CANAPINO (R) (78) of Arrecifes, Argentina prepares to practice for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on The Streets of Long Beach in Long Beach CA.
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- CALLUM ILOTT (77) of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England prepares to practice for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on The Streets of Long Beach in Long Beach CA.
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- CALLUM ILOTT (77) of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England drives on track during practice for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in Long Beach, CA, USA.
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- AGUSTIN HUGO CANAPINO (R) (78) of Arrecifes, Argentina drives on track during practice for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in Long Beach, CA, USA.