QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES---- São Paulo, Brazil,
April 28, 2012
Fast Facts:
Oriol Servia
- With rain in the forecast every day this weekend, it
fortunately stayed dry for today's practice and qualifying. Servia
was in Group 2 for today's qualifying session. Unfortunately, he
did not advance to the Fast 12. He clocked the 24th quickest time
today with a time of 1:23.4509.
- This weekend will mark Servia's second start for the São Paulo
Indy 300. Last year he started 16th and finished 5th.
- WIX Filters is the primary on the No. 22 machine this weekend.
Since 1939, Wix has been an innovator in filtration products. Wix
designs, manufactures, and distributes filtration products for
automotive, diesel, agricultural, industrial, and specialty filter
markets. Its product line includes oil, air, cabin interior, fuel,
coolant, transmission, and hydraulic filters for automobiles, trucks
and off-road equipment.
- This will be the first time that Servia has competed for Lotus
DRR, he signed with the team in January. Servia has
been reunited with his engineer, Yves Touron, who he has worked
with in the pastand has a solid relationship with.
- Last year Oriol Finished fourth in IZOD IndyCar Series
standings....Recorded 11 top-10 finishes, with a best of second at
New Hampshire and Baltimore....Among three drivers to be running at
the finish in all 17 races..... Led all drivers in laps completed
(2,103 of 2,011)....Oriol was the only driver to finish in the top
10 in first five races of the season.
Lotus DRR
- This year will be Lotus DRR's 13th season of IndyCar
competition, making them one of the longest tenured teams in the
series.
- This weekend will mark the team's third time to compete at the
São Paulo Indy 300.
- In 2010 Mike Conway qualified his car 19th and finished 8th,
Wilson started on the second row in 3rd position and finished 11th,
and Beatriz qualified 22nd and brought the car home in 13th place.
Last year Wilson started 8th and finished 7th and Beatriz started
25th and finished 24th in the race.
- Lotus and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing have reached an amicable
resolution to end their agreement. The two entities had entered
into a contract back in November for Lotus to be the team's engine
supplier in the IZOD IndyCar Series. Lotus remains completely
committed to IndyCar and has worked diligently to rise to the
challenge. Given the circumstances of the regulatory requirement to
supply multiple teams, the late timing of Lotus' entry and the
unanticipated difficulties caused by the change of ownership, Lotus
has made the decision to reduce the number of cars it runs. As a
result, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing will run the Lotus engine for
the final time in Brazil.
Oriol Servia, No. 22 Lotus DRR, on qualifying in
Brazil: "I was pretty happy with the balance of the car.
It was better than the lap time looked. We knew that this place was
the longest straight of the championship, so we were a little too
greedy trying to get more speed on the straight lines. I think that
we trimmed out too much, which hurt the grip of the car and we were
sliding around a little bit too much and we lacked on top speed.
I'm happy with the work, but we just didn't have the speed."
Back on Track: Lotus DRR will be back on track
tomorrow starting with warm-up for the Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300
Presented by Nestle in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The race will be telecast
live tomorrow on NBC Sports Network at 11:00 am ET. Please visit www.dreyerreinboldracing.com
for more updates.