Press release
Sonoma: Top 10 quotes after qualifying
Championship leader Pagenaud wins pole at Sonoma
Upd:
Photo by: James Holland
| P. | N° | Driver | Team (Engine) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 |  Simon Pagenaud |
 Penske (C) |
1:16.2565 |
| "It feels great. Most importantly up until now there was no thinking about the race, no thinking about the outcome. It was all about raw speed. Obviously the No. 22 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Chevrolet has been amazing. We certainly prepared really well in practice. Everything went perfectly all weekend so far. It was about preparing the car for the red Firestone tires, which we know I'm always more comfortable on those tires, so I can always extract a little bit more from myself. We had good balance on the car. The first lap, put the red Firestone tires on. I went on the radio and said, 'Wow, this is going to be good.' We were able to replicate the lap time every time. Unbelievable that we could actually replicate the lap time in the Firestone Fast Six with used tires. Certainly I did everything I could by challenging every high-speed corners that I could. I was on the edge, but it was a really good lap. Super proud of these guys. The guys on the No. 22 team, seven poles this season, four wins. No matter what happens tomorrow, it's been an incredible season." | ||||
| 2 | 3 |  Helio Castroneves |
 Penske (C) |
1:16.4134 |
| "Man, that was so close. The Hitachi Chevy has been fast all weekend and we showed it again today in qualifying. We felt good with our approach and the car was really consistent. I made just a little mistake and that probably cost us in the end because Simon (Pagenaud) was so fast, especially on red tires. Congratulations to Simon - that is good for him in the championship - and what a great job by Team Penske to qualify 1-2-3-4. It just shows how well we are working together. It's still good to start P2, but I'd rather be on top tomorrow instead of today, so we need to focus and try to finish the year strong with a win." | ||||
| 3 | 2 |  Juan Pablo Montoya |
 Penske (C) |
1:16.5400 |
| "It was a good run for our hum by Verizon car. We had a really good day today and we knew we had a shot at it. I could just put the gas down in a couple of corners because the car had a little oversteer, especially in (Turn 7). But overall I am happy with it. It's nice to see Penske sweep the front two rows. I know we did it in St. Pete, but didn't start that way after Will couldn't race. It's neat to be a part of." | ||||
| 4 | 12 |  Will Power |
 Penske (C) |
1:16.6659 |
| "We just really pretty much didn't have it all in qualifying. Just thereabouts. I think we've been like that in practice, as well. Just hanging in there, a top-six car. Same in qualifying. Definitely were worse on the red tires. That's all I could do in qualifying, that was everything I had and the car had. I think we have to look at my braking, had some braking issues. Very much different brake bias than these guys. Might be something there that we're missing because we just haven't been there. It's a long race. I think it's going to be a race of degradation. It's going to be really interesting the way the tires go." | ||||
| 5 | 15 |  Graham Rahal |
 Rahal (H) |
1:16.7149 |
| "It was a really solid end to the day for the Steak 'n Shake team. It's been a challenging weekend. No one has had their head down but we have had to work very hard to get ourselves into a good spot for sure. I don't think any session was smooth for us so far but to come out of qualifying the top Honda is something that makes us very proud, particularly since the Andretti team has been so strong here this weekend. It was nice to beat them out there. We're fifth and have four Penskes ahead of us. My guys have worked very hard; we're the little team that can. Tomorrow hopefully we can get a victory. It would mean a lot to end the season off strong. Obviously we've got championship contenders in front of us, we've got to be smart about what we're doing tomorrow but we're here to win. I'm not going to sit around and wait for someone else to do it. We'll push as hard as we can and hopefully we can get Honda, PennGrade, United Rentals and the rest of our sponsors in Victory Lane. We just have to have a good solid race. We started up front last year but everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. We just need to be smart tomorrow, protect those rear tires and have a good solid race." | ||||
| 6 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay |
 Andretti (H) |
1:16.9132 |
| "We made the (Firestone) Fast Six, but we're pretty disappointed with the result. We just missed a little bit with strategy and timing of our runs, and had some issues during the run that kept us from achieving the time that we had hoped to get for the DHL team. I don't think we showed our full potential, but sixth is good starting spot. I just think we could have been quite a bit better." | ||||
| 7 | 9 |  Scott Dixon |
 Ganassi (C) |
1:16.5700 |
| "We had some major vibrations on the qualifying run with the black tires, and then when we switched to the red tires it got even worse. I was actually surprised we were able to get through to (Segment 2). Overall we've been struggling with overall grip. The times are just so close. The Verizon IndyCar Series is just so close and cut throat these days. You can miss by just a little and be on the outside looking in." | ||||
| 8 | 98 | Alexander Rossi |
 Andretti-Herta (H) |
1:16.5840 |
| "We only missed the (Firestone) Fast Six by a one-hundredth of a second, that's really hard to swallow because you can look back and look over a lap and think of a lot of places where that one-hundredth is. It's just crazy. It's our best qualifying on a road course so we have to take some satisfaction from that and try to get the car to the front tomorrow. I think we have a fast race car so this is the one Saturday where I know I'll get a decent night's sleep." | ||||
| 9 | 11 | Sébastien Bourdais |
 KVSH (C) |
1:16.6115 |
| "A pretty good bounce back for the Plantronics - KVSH Racing Team. It has been a tough weekend. Like I've said, we didn't test here and didn't have a good baseline from last year when we struggled quite a bit, but, for once the car got stronger on reds (alternate tires) where we have been struggling here on blacks (primary tires) to generate grip. So, overall I was pretty happy with qualifying. I put a good lap in during (Segment 1) which put use solidly in for (Segment 2). Then in (Segment 2), I put a solid lap in again, unfortunately they sent Scott (Dixon) a little bit too late and we got within a second and a half behind him, which looks like it should not influence you, but there is so much downforce on the cars and so much turbulence behind, the slightest lack of downforce just kills your lap. So, the two, two and a half seconds I gained early in the lap, I lost in the last sector because I couldn't stop the car. Frustrating, but overall pretty satisfied with the work that the team has done because Olivier (engineer Olivier Boisson) had to scratch his head and come up with ideas and solutions to try and get the car faster and he sure did that. So now we will see what kind of tire life we've got and what kind of pace we've got in the race because that is another question mark. Hopefully, we can get a good start tomorrow, get in the right train and see what we can get out the last race of the season." | ||||
| 10 | 21 | Josef Newgarden |
 Carpenter (C) |
1:16.8142 |
| "We did a good job as a group getting a decent result in qualifying. It's a good top 10 starting spot. We would have liked more, I think everyone would have, but that's OK. We're still in a strong position to attack tomorrow. We're still going to have a great race car, we know how to build a fast race car here. I have all the confidence that we'll be quick and can capitalize from our starting spot." | ||||
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