Tagliani Practice Report from the Long Beach GP (02)
For Immediate Release-April 16, 2010 FAZZT Race Team Grand Prix of Long Beach Friday Practice Notes Driver: ALEX TAGLIANI Entry: No. 77 La Capsule Sportive/Adonis Products/Honda Indy Edmonton FAZZT Race Team Dallara/Honda/Firestone Event/Track: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, 3.167 km, 11-turn temporary street course Event Date: Sunday, April 18, 2010 3:30 p.m. ET on VERSUS, IMS Radio Network, XM Radio 145 and SIRIUS Radio 211 and 5:00 p.m. ET on TSN 2 Race: 4 of 17 FRIDAY PRACTICE RESULTS TAGLIANI POSITION: Session 1 - 7th / Session 2 - 4th / Combined time - 4th TAGLIANI TIME: Session 1 - 1:11.7611 / Session 2 - 1:10.7996 TAGLIANI LAPS: Session 1- 16 laps / Session 2 - 22 laps / Total Laps - 38 FAST DRIVER / TIME: Session 1 - WILL POWER, Team Penske, 1:11.4039 / Session 2 and best overall - RYAN HUNTER-REAY, Andretti Autosport, 1:10.6346 No. 77 La Capsule Sportive/Adonis Products FAZZT Race Team Practice News and Notes - In the opening practice session, Tagliani made contact with the tire barriers in Turn 5. There was slight damage to the nose of the car. Tagliani was seventh on he chart, half a second behind Team Penske driver Will Power. In between sessions, the FAZZT team replaced the nose of the car. - In the afternoon session, Tagliani recorded his best lap time around the 3.167 km track in 1:10.7996 to post fourth best time overall, 16 hundredths of a second behind Andretti Autosport driver Ryan Hunter-Reay. - Hunter-Reay was quickest overall in Friday's second session with a lap time of 1:10.6346, six hundredths of a second better then Team Penske driver Ryan Briscoe (1:10.6980). Tony Kanaan (Andretti Autosport) was third with a lap time of 1:10.7334, six hundredths of a second better than Tagliani. Will Power, winner of the fist two rounds finished fifth overall. As for Helio Castroneves, winner of the last IndyCar race in Alabama, he was ninth on the leader board at the end of the day - Qualifying for Round 4 in Long Beach begins Saturday at 5:30 pm, Eastern time. Fans can follow the action live on www.indycar.com. - Last year, Tagliani started 9th and finished 10th in Long Beach event driving for Conquest Racing. Driver Alex Tagliani on the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Practice Session: "I am very, very happy. The La Capsule Sportive/Adonis Products/Honda Indy Edmonton team did a fantastic job today. Obviously finishing the first day in position four is a great achievement for us. We kind of knew that Long Beach was going to be a more suitable track for our car. We are still in the learning process and I think today we learned a lot and made very good changes to the car. We recovered well from our incident this morning and the guys did a fantastic job of getting the car ready to go for the last practice. The car is very close but we're still trying to get a little bit more out of the car and the track continues to grip up. There's been like a second of improvement from this morning's times to this afternoon. I feel that the team is where it needs to be and with this particular track and what is happening and how competitive we are the team is right where it needs to be. We are still learning more information and now we are gathering a good group of data from the most recent tracks so we are starting to come full circle on our information. If we can build on the information I think we'll continue to be more consistent and have the car where we want it which is quick out of the box." Team Manager Rob Edwards on the Long Beach Friday Practice Session: "We executed the plan that we came here to achieve. We said after the weekend in Barber that we wanted to get back on song in Long Beach and the guys came with a good plan and we executed that plan today. We are right where we want to be at the end of day one. We'll rub on the car a bit more overnight and make sure we are in the fast six tomorrow." Team Owner Andre Azzi on the Long Beach Friday Practice Session: "It's been an unbelievable day for the FAZZT Race Team. If you are passionate about racing you must make a trip to the Long Beach Grand Prix. It is only Friday but the crowd is fantastic and very excited. It makes me very proud to be a Quebec based race team company and I must thank our partners La Capsule Sportive, Adonis Products et the Honda Indy Edmonton race for their support and I hope that we do them proud this weekend." - End - Media contact: Jana Watt FAZZT Race Team (317) 709-3855 janaw@fazztraceteam.com Max d'Orsonnens For FAZZT Race Team (514) 990-4988 maxdo@videotron.ca Photo copyright-free for the media Tagliani Long Beach Practice.jpg Alex Tagliani on track on Friday morning in the No 77 La Capsule Sportive/Adonis Products/Honda Indy Edmonton Dallara during Friday morning practice session at the Long Beach Grand Prix. Tagliani was fourth quickest overall at the end of the day. Photo credit: IndyCar/Ron McQueeney