Lotus Qualifies Eighth, 11Th And 21St For Honda Grand Prix Of St. Pete

[Mark H]

Lotus drivers Tony Kanaan, Takuma Sato and E. J. Viso qualified eighth, 11th and 21st respectively for tomorrow’s Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on the streets of downtown St. Petersburg, Florida.

Kanaan, No. 82 GEICO – KV Racing Technology – Lotus, qualified with a lap of 62.7818 seconds (103.215 mph) on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit and will start on the outside of Row No. 4. Sato, No. 5 KV Racing Technology - Lotus, recorded a qualifying time of 62.9312 seconds (102.970 mph) putting him on the inside of Row No. 6. Viso, No. 59 PDVSA - KV Racing Technology - Lotus, had a qualifying time of 63.4065 seconds (102.198 mph), making his grid position the inside of Row No. 11. Both Kanaan and Sato advanced to the second round of road/street course qualifying, but fell just short of making the final round, the Firestone Fast Six.

Kanaan, who is making his debut with KVRT - Lotus after signing with the team earlier this week, will be contesting his seventh race at St. Petersburg. He has qualified eighth or better for every race here with five top-three starting positions including twice on the front row with one pole, in 2008. Kanaan has finished in the top-10 in every race he has run here placing in the top-five all but once including four podium performances. He best showing is second in 2005.

“I have to thank the whole GEICO - KV Racing Technology - Lotus team,” said Kanaan. “I jumped into this car two days ago and the whole team made me feel right at home. I am just happy to be here and happy that I gave them a good solid qualifying result today. This is just the beginning and I have to remember to be patient, which is hard for me.”

Commenting on tomorrow’s race, Kanaan said, “It is going to be a tough race tomorrow. The race setup is not what we used in qualifying, but we have a warm-up tomorrow to fine tune the car. My goal is to have a good performance and bring the car home.”

Sato, in his second IZOD IndyCar season and second with KVRT - Lotus, has now qualified 11th both times here at St. Petersburg.

“I was disappointed not to qualify in the top-10,” Sato said. “ It has been a tough weekend. We have struggled to find balance and grip during practice and qualifying. However, I think we managed to gather some valuable information from these sessions. We have a lot of work to do to improve the car for the race tomorrow.”

Viso will be making his fourth start, second with KVRT and first in Lotus livery at St. Petersburg. The young Venezuelan, who had three eventful practice sessions, came through with a solid performance in qualifying missing the second round by a little more than three tenths of a second. In four appearances here in St. Petersburg, Viso has a best starting position of ninth, in 2010 and a best finish of fourth in 2008, which is also his career high on a road/street circuit. Last year, he took the lead here and led one lap before a mechanical problem hampered his efforts.

“So far it has been a tough weekend for the crew of the No. 59 PDVSA car,” Viso said. “We are keeping the faith and we feel that we will be strong in tomorrow’s race. We found some issues that could have been better in qualifying. On a street circuit it matters where you start, but more important is where you finish and that is what we are working on now. St. Petersburg is a place I really like. In the three races I have done here I have had a good rhythm and that is what I am looking forward to tomorrow.”

In this morning’s practice, Kanaan logged the team’s fastest lap with a time of 63.3988 seconds (102.210 mph) putting him seventh on both the session and combined practice reports. Sato was 10th on the practice report with a lap of 63.5953seconds (101.894 mph), which put him 11th on the combined chart. Viso was 18th in the session at 64.0412 seconds (101.185 mph) and 19th on the combined.

 

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