JHR ready to build on qualifying pace at new Detroit street circuit

Callum Ilott will begin Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix from P16, while team-mate Agustín Canapino will start at the new downtown street circuit from P20.

Callum and Agustín were placed together in group two of qualifying this afternoon and both started the 10-minute session on Firestone’s primary tires. Despite a mid-session switch to the soft tires, neither were able to find the lap times required to progress into the ‘Fast 12’.

As track speeds improved under Motor City’s sunny conditions, both JHR drivers recorded the quickest times on their eighth and final lap of the challenging
1.7-mile circuit.

Callum battled in new surroundings to record his fastest lap of 1m 2.264s. As the eighth fastest time of the round, the Briton’s effort was only 0.074s away from the benchmark to break into the top six.

Agustín finished tenth fastest in the group with a best lap time of 1m 2.907s. The Argentine rookie performed confidently to recover from a collision in yesterday’s practice session.

P16

77 \ CALLUM ILOTT

“It was a very tight qualifying session, ending up P8 in the group and P16 overall. I knew it was going to be tight before we went into it. I felt like I put in some good laps but missed out by less than a tenth to P6.

“Overall it was pretty decent, even though it was so close. Tomorrow is a completely different day on a new track, so I’m looking forward to it.”

P20

78 \ AGUSTIN CANAPINO

“By finishing P20 in qualifying, I am really happy with the recovery and grateful for the hard work of the team after the crash yesterday.

“Tomorrow, we have a big opportunity to have a good race, so I will try to do the 100 laps with good pace and strategy to take some points.”

TP \ RICARDO JUNCOS

“We had a pretty good day in Detroit today, but we expected a little bit more after looking really fast in this morning’s practice session, where we finished with both drivers in the top 12.

“We need to keep working and understanding a little bit more about the green tires, but I am looking forward to a good warmup tomorrow and a good race. It’s going to be a long race, so anything can happen.”