ALMS » Highcroft to start from fourth row at Sebring

19 March 2011
Handling problems stymie Simon Pagenaud and co-drivers David Brabham and Marino Franchitti in qualifying for season-opening ALMS round.
Highcroft to start from fourth row at Sebring

Highcroft Racing will start tomorrow's Mobil1 12 Hours of Sebring from the fourth row tomorrow after Simon Pagenaud qualified seventh on board the Honda Performance Development ARX-01e.

Pagenaud's initial flying lap had the Frenchman in a confident mood, but the Highcroft star then battled a handling imbalance throughout the rest of the session.

While the team recorded its fastest official time of the meeting at 1min 49.802secs, the time was only quick enough for seventh fastest on the grid.

Pagenaud also survived a couple of wild oversteer moments in the ultra-fast turn one before electing to return to pit-lane. The Highcroft crew began a thorough inspection of the machine after qualifying in final preparation for the race on Saturday.

Pagenaud and team-mates David Brabham and Marino Franchitti will have one more chance to try the car in the warm-up at 8am on raceday morning, before the race goes green at 10.30am.

“With a brand new car like we've got, with so little running, I think we have made a lot of progress in a very short space of time," Brabham commented, “I think we go into the race as prepared as we can be.

"We know here anything can happen but we have a great team and I have great team-mates. We've done this before and I still feel confident that we can have a very good result.

“We'll be flying the flag for Japan tomorrow which is a country in need and suffering massively – you can't even comprehend what they are going through. We're making as big an effort as we can to raise money because they sorely need it.”

Tagged as: qualifying , David Brabham , Highcroft , Simon Pagenaud , marino franchitti , Sebring , arx-01e
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Related Pictures

David Brabham tests Highcroft Racing`s ARX-01e at Sebring [pic credit: Highcroft Racing]

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aspinock

March 19, 2011 4:24 AM

It would be nice to know who was on the pole, and a general report on the event itself, including the other teams. There are major changes going on in prototype racing, and concentrating on just one car seem very shortsighted, as much as I enjoy what Highcroft is trying to do.


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