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Lowe's Fernandez Racing Lines Up Sixth at Mosport

Lowe’s Fernandez Racing will start third in class and sixth overall in the Mobil 1 Presents the Grand Prix of Mosport. Luis Diaz handled qualifying duties after a wet morning practice session in which he turned only a handful of laps. Final practice was held under dry but windy and cool conditions and despite consistent gains with the setup of the #15 Lowe’s Acura, Diaz was unable to match the pace of the Dyson Mazda squad on the high-speed circuit. His best lap was just over five-tenths of a second off the LMP2 pole winning time of Marino Franchitti in the #20 car.

 

Optimism still runs high in the Lowe’s Fernandez Racing camp for tomorrow’s 2-hour      45-minute race with both Diaz and teammate Adrian Fernandez confident they have a consistent car. If the pair finish ahead of the #20 Dyson Mazda – their closest competitor – they would clinch the P2 driver championship and potentially the manufacturer’s championship depending upon the final finishing position of the Mazdas.

 

Qualifying Results (Overall):

1. Brabham/Sharp – LMP1 Acura ARX 02a65.323 = 135.517 mph

2. de Ferran/Pagenaud – LMP1 Acura ARX 02a65.397 = 135.364 mph

3. Franchitti/Leitzinger – LMP2 Lola B09 86 Mazda66.379 = 133.361 mph

6. Diaz/Fernandez – LMP2 Lowe’s Acura ARX-01b66.944 = 132.236 mph

 

Luis Diaz:  “We made a lot of changes in the right direction for qualifying. At this track, you really have only four turns because there are a lot of flat-out corners and, if you take that out of the equation, you need a lot of horsepower here. That made a lot of difference today. I was running flat-out everywhere. We may not have the fastest car but we have a good race car for tomorrow and, hopefully, with strategy and good fuel mileage we can beat them.”

 

Adrian Fernandez: “We have had a good two days. We didn’t do much running today because of the rain this morning, but we were just not close to the Mazdas this weekend in qualifying. This track is a lot faster than others and a lot of the corners are flat-out. We are at a little bit more of a disadvantage power-wise here, but I think we will be strong in the race.”

 

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