CART: Blundell Leads Mercedes
17 October 1998
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Unser was uninjured, but the damaged suspension of his Marlboro Penske/Mercedes pierced the carbon fiber tub, rendering his primary car useless for the remainder of the weekend. Hell forfeit his 20th place time from today to run his backup car during final qualifying tomorrow.
Players/Forsythe Racings Greg Moore, who scored his fourth pole of the season during the last CART race on the streets of Houston and was consequently running in the first half of todays qualifying, ended the day 13th. A crash by Adrian Fernandez interrupted the session for several minutes, but Moores biggest problem occured when the top of the brake fluid reservoir came loose, spilling slippery brake fluid all over the footwell, his shoes and the pedals.
Team Alumax rookie Helio Castro-Neves, Players/Forsythes Patrick Carpentier and Hogan Racing rookie JJ Lehto, all running in the second half of the session, had their qualifying efforts foiled when the session ended early for Unsers incident. The three finished 16th, 17th and 18th, respectively. Marlboro driver Andre Ribeiro was 25th, and Hollywood pilot Mauricio Gugelmin was 26th.
Mercedes Quotes
Mark Blundell, No. 18 Motorola Reynard/Mercedes/Firestone: 12th - 93.820
sec.
"We had a pretty productive qualifying. Unfortunately, I think
our
best run was lost because of the red flag. We struggled a bit to get our
tires up to working temperature, but overall it was pretty good. Im just a
bit disappointed that we didnt have the whole 30 minutes to show our
stuff."
Greg Moore, No. 99, Players/Indeck Reynard/Mercedes/Firestone: 13th -
93.859 sec.
"The brake fluid cap came off. After that, there was just no
chance
of going fast because my feet were sliding all around in the cockpit.
Obviously, we havent found the setup as well as we thought we did, so
well have to go back and work on it."
Helio Castro-Neves, No. 16 Alumax Reynard/Mercedes/Goodyear: 16th - 94.012
sec.
"We were going pretty good in the beginning, but we didnt have
any
chance to use our second set of tires. We had a throttle problem and lost
a
lot of time in the pits. We just had time to scuff in our second set
before
the session ended. Im just praying to get into the top 10 tomorrow."
Patrick Carpentier, No. 33, Players/Indeck Reynard/Mercedes/Firestone:
17th - 94.041 sec.
"I have a really bad cold, so thats not helping things. The
session really was not so good. On the first set of tires, the car had a
lot more understeer than it did this morning, so I had to wait a lot
longer
before going back to power in the corners. We went faster because the
track
was better, but we shouldve gone much faster. We made a change for the
second set, but we got stuck behind traffic. Then the red flag came out,
and that was it."
JJ Lehto, No. 9 Hogan Racing Reynard/Mercedes/Firestone: 18th - 94.170
sec.
"That was much better, much more promising than this morning.
In
the morning, we were really struggling with the bumps and over the curbs.
It was a big improvement. We still have a lot of work to do, but its
getting better."
Al Unser Jr., No. 2, Marlboro Penske/Mercedes/Goodyear: 20th - 94.801 sec.
"We had just put a fresh set of tires on the Marlboro
Penske/Mercedes, and we were looking for a clear lap for a quick time.
Turn
12 is off-camber from the crown of the road, and when I got in hot under
braking, the car just darted rightlike what happened to Andre in practice.
Its a real shame because the wishbone pierced the tub, so tomorrow well
have to start all over again with the backup car."
Andre Ribeiro, No. 3, Marlboro Penske/Mercedes/Goodyear: 25th - 95.293
sec.
"We got behind this morning when we tagged the wall after the
car
jumped out under braking going over a bump. We went to our backup car for
the second half of the session, and we were able to make good progress
with
our setup. In qualifying, we had just put on our second set of tires and
were ready to go for a time when we ran out of fuel. Weve got a lot of
work to do on the Marlboro Penske/Mercedes, but we know what direction we
need to go in."
Mauricio Gugelmin, No. 17 Hollywood Reynard/Mercedes/Firestone: 26th -
95.640 sec.
"It was a pretty bad session. On the first set of tires, I
only got
one lap after aborting twice and spinning once. I basically didnt have a
car to do better than a 1 minute 35 (second lap). We made one major
aerodynamic change for the second set of tires but never got a clear lap
before the red flag came out."
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