Rahal and Servia Turned Their First Laps With Honda’s New Super Speedway Aero Kit at the IMS Open Test Today

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Verizon IndyCar Series – Indianapolis Motor Speedway
OPEN TESTING NOTES/QUOTES – Sunday, May 3, 2015
RAHAL AND SERVIA TURNED THEIR FIRST LAPS WITH HONDA’S NEW SUPER SPEEDWAY AERO KIT AT THE INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY OPEN TEST TODAY

1) Juan Pablo Montoya 226.772 mph 95 laps
18) Oriol Servia 223.683 mph 75 laps
25) Graham Rahal 221.714 mph 77 laps

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a good first day testing the aero kit. We also had to mileage out an engine, which we successfully did, but we have a little work to do with the handling of the Steak ‘n Shake car. It’s better than last year but we’re not where we need to be. It’s the first on-track day of the month which is good so there is a lot of time ahead of us. The team is a little split up right now over the two cars but once we get a full staff in here it will be a lot easier.”

FAST FACTS: Will be his eighth Indy 500 and fourth with RLL. His best qualifying position in the Indy 500 is fourth in 2009 with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing and best finish is third with Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing in 2011 after he led six laps. He ran in the top-five in four of his seven previous races here.

ORIOL SERVIA, No. 32 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I enjoy driving here almost every time. It felt really good, I felt at home immediately and it helped that I was with the team I drove with last year. Everything felt like it was only yesterday that I drove an Indy car here instead of a year ago. The team did a great, great job. It already felt better than last year. We just went through a lot of changes and gathered data. We have a whole week now to look at the data and basically understand the new aero package. We have wind tunnel figures, which is good to have, but it’s not the same as being on track so both cars tried different things to gather as much data as possible. Graham and I did a lot of laps today but this week the engineers have a lot of work ahead of them to go through. I’m feeling pretty good. It’s quite amazing to see how different the two aero packages are and yet are still so close in speed.”

FAST FACTS: Will be his seventh Indy 500 and third with RLL. His best finish here is fourth in 2012 with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and best start in 2011 with Newman/Haas Racing. Today was his first day behind the wheel of an Indy car since the 2014 Indy 500.

NEXT UP: The Grand Prix of Indianapolis will take place May 7-9.