Andretti Fastest At Mid-Ohio

By Joe Jennings
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Updated: July 19, 2008

Lexington, OH – The IndyCars Series took to the 2.258-mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Friday to begin preparations for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200.

Twenty-six cars were on the track and at the end of the day, Michael Andretti topped the charts with a speed of 119.699 miles per hour. Tony Kanaan was second fastest at 119.498 mph and Helio Castroneves was close behind at 119.413 mph.

Even though Andretti had the fastest car, he indicated it would take more work to contend for the pole position. “Practice wasn’t bad because we were the fastest of the day, but there is still some stuff that we need to work on,” the third-generation driver said. “We have a lot of understeer in the car, and it just seems easy to tip the car into oversteer, so we need some grip. The more grip the better.”

Kanaan, who led the first session, stated, “Qualifying position here is going to be really, really important. With the heat and all the different rubbers with the different series, the track is changing constantly, so we’re going to have to be smart about the kind of changes we make.”
Castroneves expressed pleasure with his time.

Ryan Briscoe timed fourth followed by Scott Dixon and Justin Wilson.

Rounding out the top-10 were Hikeki Mutoh, Buddy Rice, E. J. Viso and Danica Patrick.

Track activity is non-stop as the American LeMans Series, the Firestone Indy Lights Series, the IMSA GT3 Challenge Cup Series and the SCCA SPEED World Challenge and Touring cars are all seeing action.

Gil de Ferran captured his first ALMS pole with a speed of 119.596 mph in his Acura ARX-01b with David Brabham second fastest in a similar Highcroft Acura, the same team that won a week ago at Lime Rock Park.

Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard were third fastest in a Penske RS Spyder with Andretti Green drivers Raphael Matos and Franck Montagny fourth.

The first four cars were from the LMP2 class with the LMP1 field was topped by the Audi R10 driven by Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr. The Audi qualified fifth overall.

The ALMS will showcase its competitors in the 2 hour and 45-minute Acura Sports Car Challenge on Saturday afternoon.