Catchfence

FAZZT Race Team driver Alex Tagliani will start Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach from row four. Tagliani drove his #77 La Capsule Sportive/Adonis Products/Honda Indy Edmonton sponsored Dallara to 7th place during Saturday’s Final 12 qualifying session with a lap time of 1:09.8730 around the 3.167 km, 11-turn temporary street course for an average speed of 163.179 km/h. Even though the Canadian driver bettered his lap times compared to the previous track session, his rivals also improved on their lap times. This was Tagliani’s third Top-8 qualifying effort of the season.

“I’m so very proud of the FAZZT Race Team they are just doing a fantastic job,” said Tagliani following qualifying. “We are right there every time we go out and today just shows how incredibly competitive the IZOD IndyCar Series is to be only half a tenth out of the Fast Six, it’s just amazing. I couldn’t be happier with the guys, the team; everything has just been really amazing. For tomorrow’s race, this track is really challenging and it changes quite a bit from practice to qualifying to the race so you can’t really go overboard and be too worried about your car. I think you have to let the track come to you but it also has a lot of different corners like very slow corners on concrete and then fast corners so you need stability. So basically, it can be very difficult to find the compromise on this track but I think we are very close and I know we have to let things come to us, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow and I think we will have a good race.”

Tagliani was fourth in the first qualifying session with a time of 1:10.2228. The session was the first time the team had run red tires during the weekend so they knew slight changes might be necessary. After slight adjustments to the set-up, Tagliani went from 9th to 4th in his second stint to make it into the Fast 12 Qualifier. In the second qualifying session, the Fast 12, Tagliani missed making the Fast Six by only 3/100ths of a second.

Australian Will Power, who topped the charts in two of the three practice sessions, was not a surprise as he scored his second consecutive pole, also his second of the season. With nearly half a second ahead of his closest rivals, the Team Penske driver parked his car early in the final Fast 6 Grand Prix of Long Beach qualifier after posting a lap time of 1:09.5469 (163.945 km/h). Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay will share the front row with Power. Justin Wilson will start from the inside of row two next Helio Castroneves. Ryan Briscoe and Tony Kanaan will be on row three. As for Tagliani, he will start from the inside of row four next to Scott Dixon.

Tagliani eight fastest in final practice
In the third and final practice held earlier on Saturday morning, Tagliani was eighth overall, only six tenths of the leader with a lap time of 1:10.6160 (161.463 km/h). Will Power was the only driver in that session to post a time under 70 seconds stopping the clock at 1:09.9597. Dario Franchitti was second quickest, followed by Helio Castroneves. Lap times clocked during this session were the quickest of the three practice sessions.