David Ostella Qualifying Report–Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
LONG BEACH, Calif.– While young Canadian David Ostella runs the No. 22 on his Global Precast-Xtreme Coil Drilling car, the number nine keeps turning up when taking a lap through his most recent stats.
Recently, the 20-year-old posted a ninth-place finish in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama after starting 14th, which strangely enough, was an exact replica of his performance in 2011 on the famed streets of Long Beach. Ostella began last year’s event in the 14th position on the grid, and battled his way through the tight turns and incredibly bumpy surface to finish ninth overall.
This year, the Maple, Ontario resident changed his fate and made the number nine his qualifying position on the grid for Sunday’s Firestone Indy Lights race with Team Moore Racing with a time of 1:16:1165 and a speed of 93.078 mph. Ostella is hoping to continue his tradition of gaining at least five positions, which would fulfill his goal of finishing in the top-5.
“I think qualifying went pretty well today,” said Ostella. “We made some big changes from our first practice session of the day, and we were able to pick up two seconds to put us higher on the grid. I think we timed everything good with the tires, pitting, and making all the changes we needed, but at the end, (Tristan) Vautier hitting the wall put us at a bit of a disadvantage in terms of gaining even more time to improve. But in the end we finished ninth, so now we are just moving forward and hoping for a great race tomorrow.”
Sebastian Saavedra of AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport stole the pole position in today’s qualifying session with a time of 1:14:6143 and a speed of 94.952 mph.
The Grand Prix of Long Beach Firestone Indy Lights will be aired in its entirety on NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus) on Thursday, April 19 at 5 p.m. Live radio coverage, as well as timing and scoring, of all on-track activity can be heard on IndyCar.com.