As he entered Turn 7 at Sonoma Raceway during Saturday’s qualifying, James Hinchcliffe went one way, but his Schmidt Peterson Arrow Electronics Honda decided to go the other way.
And with that went Hinchcliffe’s hopes of earning a great starting spot in Sunday’s Verizon IndyCar Series season finale, the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma.
“As I said at the press conference this morning, qualifying was going to be a bit of a lottery with literally one lap,” Hinchcliffe told NBCSN. “You can’t even finish a lap on these things, to be honest. It’s very tricky for teams and drivers to set up.”
Especially setting up for one of the trickiest parts of the track, Turn 7.
“I had a lap that was going to be enough to transfer until we got to Turn 7 and the thing didn’t turn at all,” Hinchcliffe lamented. “I don’t know why, it doesn’t make a sense. It’s just frustrating, you know.
“When you have a situation where it’s impossible to predict what the car is going to do and to try and plan for that, it’s just disappointing.”
But the Canadian driver is still holding out hope to finish strong in Sunday’s season finale.
“The Arrow car is faster than this and should be starting higher,” Hinchcliffe said. “It’s just disappointing. We didn’t get the job done today, so I’ll have to work harder tomorrow.”
Follow @JerryBonkowski