Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta in the No.26 Gainbridge Honda took his third pole position of the season and the seventh of his NTT IndyCar Series career and his second at Laguna Seca on Saturday and speaking following the action he said:
“We had a great car, to be honest. I think you have to drive right to 100% at this track and the car always seemed to be on the nose – especially in that third round when we were on used tires. You have to be on that fine line, and that’s where we were today. I love that aspect of this track, it’s always right on the edge. I love this place; it’s been so good to me and the whole Gainbridge crew and Honda. Hopefully tomorrow it’s smooth sailing and we can stay up front.”
Alexander Rossi starts the race from second and speaking to Paddock Eye following the action, Rossi said:
Well, I mean, I think everyone is going to be on the same strategy in terms of pit stops. I haven’t really given much thought as to what tires you want to start on. I think the track evolution from now to the start of the race will be pretty minimal. Obviously as the race goes on, the grip will come up.
That being said, with 20-odd cars, people liking to drop wheels around here, the grip level comes up, but the dust level comes up, too. It will ebb and flow. You have to make sure in the stops you’re making the correct adjustments to the car and staying on top of it in the cockpit with the tools you have
Rossi who set a 1:10.9951s commented saying:
“I almost wish sometimes in racing you got to decline penalties, because I think we’d rather start third than second. But it’s great for the team to lockout the front row. I think that’s a big testament to the development that continues to happen with the whole organization and the progression we’ve made since the summer break. It’s a great result for the guys. Obviously, Colton did a great job. We knew he was going to be difficult to beat here after winning pole in 2019. We think we have a good shot at it tomorrow. We’re happy with the race car, we haven’t made many changes this weekend. The used tire base seems okay, so we’ll just wait and see what tomorrow brings.”
James Hinchcliffe in the No.29 Genesys Honda will start the race from 11th place with a time of 1:11.4567s and speaking following the action he commented saying:
“The practice session this morning was pretty frustrating for everybody – a 45-minute session is pretty short. We tried to find a lap on reds, black, everything. I think we did one, completely uninterrupted lap the entire morning. It definitely made it tricky coming into qualifying and knowing what to do with the setup. Credit to the Andretti Steinbrenner guys, we had a decent car and managed to get out of Q1; made a small change for Q2 and unfortunately just went the wrong way. We weren’t able to move any further up the grid. But we were knocking on the top 10 – a solid place to start for the Genesys car and hopefully tomorrow we can just move up.”
Ryan Hunter Reay starts the race from 19th with a time of 01:11:6721s and speaking following the action he said:
“Practice went pretty well, we finished up in P8. For qualifying, unfortunately as a hangover from Portland, we’re at the back of pit lane. It shortened up our qualifying time, meaning we got one lap less than everybody else. It kind of put us in a hole and we’re starting P19 tomorrow. But we’re flushed with Reds though so we can move forward from there.”