Sonoma: Justin Wilson qualifying report

Justin 19th in Sonoma qualifying after suspension problem

Justin and Dale Coyne Racing came to Infineon Raceway with high hopes of putting the #18 Z-Line Designs car on the podium, but they suffered a serious set-back on Saturday when a right rear suspension problem became apparent during Justin's first qualifying run. Despite heroic efforts by the team to replace a bent wishbone, there was insufficient time to get Justin back on track before the end of the initial qualifying round and he will start from 19th for Sunday's Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma. Dario Franchitti took pole position for Chip Ganassi Racing (1:16.7987, 107.955 mph).

"It's very disappointing," said Justin. "We had some good improvements between sessions and knew where we needed to go to challenge for the front row again. The car was bottoming a lot in the first stint and was loose in the corners. I knew something wasn't right, but I'm not sure why we had the wishbone problem, because I didn't hit anything and never left the track. Obviously that's just the way things go sometimes and we'll go back and work on getting ready for tomorrow."

With overtaking notoriously difficult at Infineon Raceway, Justin and his engineers will have plenty to think about in terms of race strategy.

VERSUS has live coverage of Sunday's race, in High Definition, from 5 p.m. EDT and the race will also air live on the IMS Radio Network, XM channel 145 and Sirius channel 211. Fans in the UK will find race coverage on Sky Sports Xtra from 10.30 p.m. BST on Sunday. A detailed on-track schedule, live timing and scoring, video streaming and radio coverage are available from www.indycar.com.

-credit: justinwilson.co.uk