Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Agustin Canapino in his first qualifying session as a NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver did a fantastic job on his debut as the Argentinian will start Sunday’s season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg presented by RP Funding from 21st place with a time of 01:01.0692s.
Speaking following the action, Canapino said:
I’m very happy to be here, to be honest. I could do much better, but my first time with softer tires pushed into a lap with these cars in this speed is really, really tricky. I’m really happy to learn the data in this way. Of course, we need to improve on everything. But I feel very close to the mid-back. So tomorrow I will try to finish the race. It will be honestly very difficult because the physical condition here. It is very different in the other way in the touring car, so I will take the car plus now like now trying to finish the race. But for me, again, I’m very happy to be here. It’s my big dream. Of course, I am very competitive so I feel I could do much, much, much better, but for now, this is good.”
The result was made all the better by the fact that he outqualified his teammate Callum Ilott who starts the race from 22nd place after setting a time of 01:00.3868s and speaking following the action the Englishman said:
“Pretty disappointed with qualifying to be honest. Ended up P22. Really not great. I think we struggled to find the time. Unfortunately, we didn’t get much time to run the green (alternate) tires. A bit of an error on our side. We were in the back a little bit for qualifying. The car felt good but we’re not quick. A bit strange. Obviously, a lot to work on. The race is a completely different kettle of fish. Hopefully we can make it work tomorrow, consistent and clean with good strategy and try our best. Today was a little bit disappointing, but we’ll reset, refresh, and try and get as many points as we can tomorrow.”