– Daly to start seventh, with Filippi 11th –
Toronto, ON (July 16, 2016) – Dale Coyne Racing had its best team qualifying effort this season on Saturday, on the streets of Toronto, with Conor Daly and Luca Filippi making it to the second round of qualifying and ultimately placing seventh and 11th, respectively, on the starting grid for the Honda Indy Toronto.
Daly and Filippi were both in Group 1 of qualifying and while they placed in the bottom half of the time charts in the early stages of the 10-minute session they moved up the ranks when it counted.
Filippi registered a fastest lap of 1:00.5552 which placed him fifth in Group 1, Round 1 with Daly putting in a lap of 1:00.4913 that placed him third.
It was the first time since the Mid-Ohio event in 2014, with the late great Justin Wilson and Carlos Huertas, that team placed both drivers into the second round of qualifying.
In the Fast 12 for the third time this season, Filippi made it as high as sixth in his first outing but caught traffic that came out in front of him during his second qualifying stint and despite a quick car, the Italian had to settle for 11th with a fastest lap of 1:00.7784.
As for Daly, the American looked to be on his way to his first Firestone Fast Six, having spent most of the Fast 12 in the top half of the speed charts. However, Daly was knocked out in the final moments of the session by James Hinchcliffe and he went on to miss out on the final round by a mere 0.093 seconds.
With a seventh place on the grid for tomorrow’s race, Daly registered his best Verizon IndyCar Series start of his career after making it to the Fast 12 for the second time in a row.
Both drivers are hoping to do even better tomorrow, Sunday July 17, when the Honda Indy Toronto goes green at 3:15pm ET. The race will be broadcast live on CNBC starting at 2:30pm ET.
Conor Daly – #18 Jonathan Byrd’s Hospitality
“It’s great to start seventh tomorrow! It’s our best starting position of the year. It feels great to be fighting for that top six and fighting right at the front of the Honda pack. It’s a little painful, and it a bit of shame, to be knocked out of the Firestone Fast Six by Hinch (James Hinchcliffe) but because it’s him it’s fine, he’s the hometown hero. I’m just happy with the progress that we’ve made. We keep improving from race to race and that’s what we have to keep doing. I can’t wait for tomorrow.”
Luca Filippi – #19 IMPCO Technologies / ComfortPro
“It’s a good team result but I’m not happy for myself because I could have done much better and possibly been more or less where Conor (Daly) is but we caught a train of traffic that came out in front of me and with these tires you can’t afford too many laps on those. That said, the potential is good so we can do well and better in the race. We just have to watch out for the start tomorrow and from there we can work our way up and have a strong race.”
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