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[/media-credit]Rookie Tristan Vautier continued to show his strength, despite his lack of experience, by leading the second practice for the Firestone Indy Lights at the Exhibition Grounds in Toronto. He would lead with a lap of 1:04.7297 minutes.
“The track is very bumper and very tricky, a lot of different kinds of corners, so it’s tricky to set the car up, it’s tricky to go from corner to corner changing your approach because some corners have a concrete patch, some of them are good, some braking zones are rough, some are smooth, so it’s very interesting,” he says. “Definitely interesting to work with the engineer on the car because there’s a lot to do and from a driving standpoint it was very challenging because of the heat, the bumps and everything, so very exciting, it’s very competitive, very tight at the front, so I think tomorrow is going to be very exciting.”
He says the only concern on his mind is they don’t know what the weather will be like due to an expected rain shower in the morning.
Sebastian Saavedra was second, a tenth off of Vautier.
“It’s an amazing track,” he says. “I always have a lot of fun to come back. The pavement is very smooth through the backstretch going into the first hard braking point, it’s actually a big benefit in a way that we can go a lot later and brake even harder than we used to.”
Saavedra says that should make both the Firestone Indy Lights and IZOD IndyCar Series races exciting as it will be a great passing zone. He added that turn nine is another tricky spot and why this track is hard to be “perfect” on.
“It’s one of those places that you’ll never have a perfect car and that’s what makes it so fun, as you cannot set up a car specifically for one corner,” he says. “It’s like half of a car for the complete track. So it’s fun, challenging, physical, and it’s a perfect combination for a good weekend.”
Another rookie cracked the top five as Carlo Munoz was third, five tenths off of Vautier.
Last race’s winner Esteban Guerrieri was fourth while Oliver Webb rounded out the top five.
Fresh off his announcement about his new full-time ride, Peter Dempsey was sixth, followed by Gustavo Yacaman, Victor Carbone, David Ostella and Juan Pablo Garcia.
