Newman/Haas Racing
Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach – Streets of Long Beach, Calif.
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – Friday, April 15, 2011
TELEMUNDO DRIVER SERVIA 10TH IN PRACTICE AT THE TOYOTA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH; SPROTT DRIVER HINCHCLIFFE 13TH AFTER FIRE IN MORNING SESSION
FASTEST: Ryan Briscoe | 1:10.7403 | 100.152 mph
10th: Oriol Servia | 1:11.5948 | 98.957 mph
13th: James Hinchcliffe | 1:11.7080 | 98.801 mph
Oriol Servia, No. 2 Telemundo Dallara/Honda/Firestone: "I'm actually surprised we were tenth fast. It was one of those days that I was not feeling like myself on track. We knew we had something with the setup we wanted to change but were not able to before the second session so we know we will be better tomorrow on that area. Through the session I had to work on myself; I was getting frustrated with everything and there was no reason. I am in beautiful California, the Telemundo car wasn't bad and I am driving for a great team but it was one of those days that things didn't seem to run as fluid as usual for the whole team. Hopefully we have all of that out of the way now and things will be good tomorrow for us."
FAST FACTS: Will be his TENTH race here and FIRST with NHR at this track. His best finishes here are second in 2007 with Forsythe and fifth in 2008 with KV Racing. In 9 events, he has two top-five, three top-10 (including sixth in his rookie debut here in 2000) and eight top-15 finishes...Servia tested with the team in Sebring for two days in December 2010. Prior to that his previous time behind the wheel of an Indy car was also with NHR at the 2009 race in Japan where he finished fourth. He also tested in the open test at Barber Motorsports Park where he was fifth fastest...Servia, a native of Catalonia, Spain, has made 17 starts for NHR which include his first Indy car win (Montreal 2005) and pole (Surfers Paradise, Australia 2005) as well as a total of seven top-three, 11 top-five and 13 top-10 finishes. In 2005, Servia replaced NHR driver Bruno Junqueira, who suffered a season-ending injury at the Indy 500 on May 29, and then went on to finish second to teammate Sebastien Bourdais in the point standings after 11 events with the team. Servia returned to NHR in 2009 for four races with a season-best finish of fourth at Twin Ring Motegi...Is ranked 6th in series points with a total of 52 after two events.
James Hinchcliffe, No. 06 Sprott Dallara/Honda/Firestone: "Today was like a baptism by fire; pun intended! In the first session we went out and did a couple of runs bedding brakes then when we started running I noticed a weird smell coming out of the car and very quickly realized we were on fire. It was not a great thing to happen. By the time I got the Sprott car slowed down and got it to a fire station there had been significant damage to the car. I only got about four hot laps in this morning. The guys did an incredible job getting the back up car out so I would like to give a huge thanks to them for getting us back out there. We got back out to try to get some work done and ran into a couple of little problems which isn't totally unexpected when you are pulling a car out of the trailer that hasn't run in a while. We had to fight a couple of little issues and we were up against it on time. We lost a lot of track time today which isn't great but luckily it's a track I know. I'm confident we can take some things from what Oriol learned in the session. Tomorrow is a new day.
"It was great to drive an Indy car here. I love this track and it felt so, so much faster than in an Indy Lights car here which probably has something to do with the walls. It was a blast out there!"
FAST FACTS: Won from pole here in last year's Firestone Indy Lights race for Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Competed in Atlantic Series races here in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and in the Firestone Indy Lights Series here in 2009 and 2010. In 2009 he started second and finished third. In 2008 he started and finished 10th here and in 2007 he qualified 10th and finished seventh. Made his Atlantic series debut at the track in 2006 where his finished third for Forsythe Championship Racing. He has an average 4.8 finishing position here...Barber Motorsports Park (BMP) was the only track James has driven an Indy car on to date that he will race on this season. The team ran James in two, two-day tests at Sebring International Raceway prior to bringing him to BMP for the open test March 14-15. He set the fifth fastest time overall on Monday (3-14) and the seventh fastest (3-15) overall time over two days at the IICS open test at Barber as well as temporarily held the fastest time on Tuesday...Toronto native Hinchcliffe, 24, finished second in the 2010 Firestone Indy Lights season standings after wins in Long Beach, Edmonton and Chicagoland and poles in St. Petersburg, Long Beach, Watkins Glen and Edmonton. In total he earned eight podium finishes in 13 races....He tested with NHR for two days at Sebring in December and another two days in January before testing at Barber Motorsports Park March 14-15 where he set the seventh fastest time overall at the test...Is ranked 27th with 12 points after one (of two) events.
NEWMAN/HAAS RACING AT LONG BEACH: The team has won more races at Long Beach than any other team and will make their 28th consecutive appearance here. In total, NHR has earned SIX WINS, 11 POLES and 14 PODIUMS at this event. (WINS by Bourdais 2007, 2006, 2005 & Mario Andretti 1987, 1985, 1984; 2nd place finishes by Junqueira 2004, Cristiano da Matta 2001, Nigel Mansell 1994, Michael Andretti 1989; 3rd place finishes by Junqueira 2005 & 2003, Bourdais 2004, Mansell 1993.) (POLES by Wilson 2008, Bourdais 2006-2007, Junqueira 2004, Mi. Andretti 1995, Mansell 1993, Mi. Andretti 1992, Mi. Andretti 1991, Ma. Andretti 1987, Ma. Andretti 1985, and Ma. Andretti 1984.)
NEXT UP: Practice and qualifying will take place tomorrow. Live timing & scoring of every session can be seen free of charge on www.indycar.com The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will be televised live on Versus at 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday.
