Hot quotes from the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

A selection of post-race quotes from the 40th running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach:

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On the Hunter-Reay/Newgarden incident:

Josef Newgarden: “An incident in Turn 4 should never happen. You just can’t pass in 4 no matter what. It’s never happened before. It just doesn’t work. So, I was surprised that we ended up in the fence. It definitely ruined a lot of guys’ days.”

Sarah Fisher (on Twitter): “It was our race to win and we got robbed by immaturity. Period.”

James Hinchcliffe: “Patience is a virtue, and someone wasn’t virtuous today. It was a rookie move.”

Michael Andretti: “You need to be a little more patient.”

Ryan Hunter-Reay: “I could have waited a little later. Maybe that’s my fault. But at the same time I had at least a half a car up alongside of him, so I went for it. If we had given each other a little bit of room, we both maybe would have gotten through there. It’s down to me to make the pass, I guess. I’m not sure. A lot of people say that was my fault. I made the decision at that split second, when he had some wheel spin, to go for it knowing that I was on hot tires. That’s the type of driver I am. I go for it.” (Later on Twitter) “Had an opportunity & I went for it w/the win on the line. Split second decision that backfired. Hind sight is 20/20 and I take the blame.”

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On resulting injuries:

Tony Kanaan: “My wrist is a little sore from the accident. It’s a shame for the Target team. They told me to take it easy on the radio when the accident happened, but I guess I didn’t take it easy enough. I didn’t expect to have four cars there, and when Sato hit I couldn’t avoid it. It’s a shame overall but we were up there and what ever happened there in front of us today didn’t look smart.”

Sebastian Saavedra: “Bruised left hand after a wing hit it but should be fine for the next round.”

James Hinchcliffe: “When I made contact I was in full opposite lock, and the wheel just snapped around and sprained (my hand). Nothing is broken, so we’ll be okay, I think, by Barber.”

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On the Power/Pagenaud incident:

Will Power: “Man, I’m really sorry about what happened. I honestly thought he had a problem because he went back really slowly and so I went up his inside and then realized he was just going to turn and try to back out. … But I honestly thought he had a flat tire or something because he was really slow and I didn’t understand why. My bad. He should be angry. I’d be the same.” (Later, in the press conference) “He’ll probably pay me back at some point on the track. If I got a penalty he probably wouldn’t have, but he told me he’s going to get me back. … I hate to ruin someone’s race like that. I do. But I think if he looked in the mirror, he could have prevented that incident. We talked about in the driver meeting that there’s got to be a bit of give and take there. But still, I hit his back tire with my front wheel, so it’s on me.”

Simon Pagenaud: “Racing, green flag, and I slowed down? Good for him. … Our day was ruined by Will Power, and it’s unfortunate because it was dirty driving on his part. We’ll move on, though, and I’m satisfied with fifth considering the spin and everything else we had to deal with today. We’re off to a great start in the championship, but the next time we have a car this good, we’re going to win.”

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On confusion regarding penalties:

Helio Castroneves: “We got a penalty on one of the restarts late in the race. We need to figure out what happened with that.”

Graham Rahal: “I hit Justin and they called a penalty on me and then I got hit by Aleshin and he doesn’t get a penalty. Same exact situation but I got one and he doesn’t.”

Will Power: “I feel bad. I don’t like to be raced like that, and I’m surprised I didn’t get a penalty.”

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On a rough race for Sebastien Bourdais:

Sebastien Bourdais: “This one really hurts. I had a great car and I just made a mistake. The rear tires were going during the first stint and I started compensating with brake bias. When we put on new tires for the second stint I wound it back a bit, but not enough. During the out lap the rear tires were coming in, but the fronts were still not in. I touched the brake pedal and didn’t even slow down. I didn’t brake late, but was nowhere near making the corner. It was a very bad judgment call.”

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On winning the race with a broken front wing:

Mike Conway: “That did feel like it slowed us down a little bit because it was flapping around. That top element, definitely some drag there. I think we did have some good top end speed because of the downforce level we had, but it felt close.”