Guerrieri tops St. Pete Indy Lights practice

Esteban Guerrieri

Esteban Guerrieri led the two practice sessions for the Firestone Indy Lights' St. Petersburg 100. Guerrieri, who finished second in Firestone Indy Lights in 2011, turned a lap of 1:07.3874 in the No. 11 Pistas Argentinas/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car. Gustavo Yacaman of Team Moore Racing was second and Sebastian Saavedra of AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport was third.

QUOTES:

ESTEBAN GUERRIERI (No. 11 Pistas Argentinas/Sam Schmidt Motorsports): "We weren't pushing 100 percent because we want to save that for qualifying. We were just trying to work on the car and try to be a bit quicker, the track is getting better, we put a bit better tires and went out to do two laps with those tires and then that's it. So, here we are, and at least we have good information to analyze tonight and for tomorrow's qualifying." (About St. Pete circuit): "It's special always when you drive around the walls, you know? It's like you got to get used to going so close to the walls. The track actually is quite nice, they said it was bumpier but I don't feel like at all. Probably a bit bumpy in the first corner but it has good grip here. We are going quicker already than last year's pole, and so I think it's fun." (Does you have to change your driving style): "A little bit, yeah. Actually now it's harder because you can't risk it, but if you missed the apex and before you could go off the brakes and jump the loaves, now if you try to jump one of the curbs you probably are in trouble. You have to be more precise, which is more challenging."

GUSTAVO YACAMAN (No. 2 TMR-Tuvacol-Xtreme Coil Drilling): "On his style on curbs: I like to have fun jumping all over them, this track is not the case. They're not very good to use them at this track. For some reason the way the caress goes up it unsettles them a lot, but I mean it's fun. I do like the rumble strips a lot more than the curbs. Like Esteban said, you could run all over them and sort of cut the corner a bit and gain more time. But, it's still a good track and we're working on it. I think qualifying tomorrow morning will be really quick." (About what's different): "All the curbs, before there were the rumble stips, the sticks, now it's a big round tall curb."

DAVID OSTELLA (No. 22 TMR-Global Precast-Xtreme Coil Drilling): "Unfortunately in the first session I just pushed too hard on cold tires. It was a stupid mistake on my part. I feel bad for the team that first session; everyone was looking forward to getting out there. They were sweating like crazy on Thursday to get this thing together so I felt bad for them. We were able to push it aside and look forward to the second practice. It was pretty good. It was essentially my first time on track so we worked on some balance changes and got out on new tires to see how the car would handle. It's not bad. We struggled just a little with my downshifting. Other than that everything's going well. I've got to thank the team for doing all this hard work in the heat. I can't thank them enough for getting the car ready to go for this session."