Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal in the No.15 Quartz Motor Oil Honda says the car felt pretty good on Friday as he ended the opening session of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Friday setting a time of 01:08.1737s and speaking following the action he said:
The Quartz Motor Oil Honda felt pretty good today. We obviously ended up 13th which isn’t great but I think it’s super close. A lot of guys, I think several, put new tires on there in the end. We wanted to keep our slicks freshies for tomorrow. I think we’re competitive, I think we’re still struggling with what we always are which is getting the car to turn and yet keep the rear solid enough. Coming out of where he did before, I know Jack is much more familiar with the car more stable and turns better as well – we got to work towards that, we have to figure out how to get there to make these cars a little quicker. We will put all of our heads together tonight and try to find a little bit more for tomorrow. We will see what happens.
Jack Harvey in the No.45 Hy-Vee Honda set the 17th fastest time of the day on his return to the race track after missing the XPEL 375 and speaking after setting a fastest time of 01:08.5799s he said:
We have a little bit of work to do probably to be one of the faster cars but honestly, I think today I am just happy that we were able to drive, we got cleared, and absolutely just love the track. I’m pretty excited for the rest of our weekend. I think the weather is going to be quite a bit different tomorrow, so we’ll just take it as it comes. I think it’s an okay start for the #45 Hy-Vee Honda. We’ll work on it tonight and get ready for tomorrow.
Christian Lungaard set the 21st fastest time in the No.30 Shield Cleansers Honda with a time of 01:08.7736s and speaking following the action he said:
The first session in Long Beach is done. It was not quite the session for us that we wanted really. I think I’m struggling at the moment a bit to understand where we are losing the time because I don’t get much information on track and obviously as a rookie it’s quite difficult to know where to go faster if you don’t have the experience yet. I’m a little disappointed in that but I’m sure we will come back stronger for P2 tomorrow. Now we have the data from Graham and Jack. I haven’t seen lap times, sectors, and data yet so it will be interesting to see where we can improve and then take it from there. We’re off to a slow start once again which is not what I expected, so we will see tomorrow.