JHR ready to build on qualifying pace at new Detroit street circuit

Callum Ilott will begin Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix from P16, while team-mate Agustín Canapino will start at the new downtown street circuit from P20.

Callum and Agustín were placed together in group two of qualifying this afternoon and both started the 10-minute session on Firestone’s primary tires. Despite a mid-session switch to the soft tires, neither were able to find the lap times required to progress into the ‘Fast 12’.

As track speeds improved under Motor City’s sunny conditions, both JHR drivers recorded the quickest times on their eighth and final lap of the challenging 1.7-mile circuit.

Callum battled in new surroundings to record his fastest lap of 1m 2.264s. As the eighth fastest time of the round, the Briton’s effort was only 0.074s away from the benchmark to break into the top six.

Agustín finished tenth fastest in the group with a best lap time of 1m 2.907s. The Argentine rookie performed confidently to recover from a collision in yesterday’s practice session.

Callum Ilott said:

“It was a very tight qualifying session, ending up P8 in the group and P16 overall. I knew it was going to be tight before we went into it. I felt like I put in some good laps but missed out by less than a tenth to P6.

“Overall it was pretty decent, even though it was so close. Tomorrow is a completely different day on a new track, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Agustín Canapino said:

“By finishing P20 in qualifying, I am really happy with the recovery and grateful for the hard work of the team after the crash yesterday.

“Tomorrow, we have a big opportunity to have a good race, so I will try to do the 100 laps with good pace and strategy to take some points.”

Ricardo Juncos said:

“We had a pretty good day in Detroit today, but we expected a little bit more after looking really fast in this morning’s practice session, where we finished with both drivers in the top 12.

“We need to keep working and understanding a little bit more about the green tires, but I am looking forward to a good warmup tomorrow and a good race. It’s going to be a long race, so anything can happen.”

Juncos Hollinger Racing’s junior drivers had mixed fortunes at race one of the INDY NXT by Firestone Detroit Grand Prix today, as Rasmus Lindh finished P12 and team-mate Matteo Nannini claimed P14.

Rasmus started the contest on row three, after qualifying in P6, while team-mate Matteo lined up in P16.

Both JHR drivers made a fast start, as Matteo progressed to P14 in the opening laps while Rasmus climbed to P3. However, upon the restart of a caution period, Rasmus suffered contact from a rival at turn three to drop down the order.

Another caution at the halfway point brought the pack together, as Matteo and Rasmus were determined to climb up the field. Both men recorded their fastest lap times upon the resumption of the race on laps 34 and 35 respectively.

Sunday’s second INDY NXT race of the weekend will provide another chance for JHR to claim a result on the streets of Detroit. Matteo will start the contest in P18, and Rasmus will line up in P12.

Matteo Nannini said:

“I started P16 and finished P14, so it could have been better but also could have been worse. We know what we have to work on, so I’m hopeful that tomorrow will be better.

“By starting P18 tomorrow, I will have to work harder to get a result, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Rasmus Lindh said:

“We had a really good start to the race. We started off P6 and after some incidents on the first lap we made it up to P3.

“From the restart, I was unlucky to get hit from behind in turn three from another driver. That basically ended the race for us. I tried to move up through the field as much as I could, and through the race we made it back to P12.

“We made a big jump in speed from qualifying yesterday, so I want to thank the team. We’re starting from the back tomorrow, but we’ll keep pushing.”