Photo Credit; Chris Owens/IndyCar
After strong practices sessions this weekend for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Simon Pagenaud, driver of the No. 22 Team Penske PPG Automotive Refinish Chevrolet, qualified third for the race.
“Yeah, the car was really good,” he said. “PPG car has been strong all weekend.”
Pagenaud mentioned it was an interesting Fast Six, which was due to his teammate Will Power running into issues. Pagenaud admits that he was concerned, but feels lucky that they locked in a lap strong enough to start up front.
“We didn’t have a lap in when the red come out,” he said. “I’m happy with third right now because I really thought we were getting sixth.”
The incident during the final round wasn’t the only issue drivers faced during qualifying as they had to change the start-finish line during the session due to timing and scoring issues that happen.
“Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing, like we just talked about, the data guy basically tells you the line has changed, it’s there on the data, so it gives you a visual before you get on the track,” he said. “Yeah certainly – it’s an adjustment. You think about it before you go on track because you’ve been used to preparing your lap at the hairpin all weekend long, All of the sudden it’s a different story in Turn nine. It was about having a good exit out of Turn eight on cold tires, so yeah, it was a little bit more tricky, and it certainly also changed your first lap because you don’t have as much time to warm up tires.”
It has been a strong weekend at Long Beach so far for the Frenchman and his Team Penkse teammates. In final practice, they were all in the top-four and in qualifying, teammate Helio Castroneves snagged the pole position for the race.
“Everyone at Penske has been really strong. I think we actually have a better race car then a qualifying car, so position three is really good.” Pagenaud said.
The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach runs on Sunday April 17th
