Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward in the No.5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet had a great opening day to the Detroit Grand Prix in Downtown Detroit as he set a fastest time of 01:03.0773s and speaking following the action he commented saying:
“New track for everybody. I think this weekend will be filled with challenges, especially with the split pit lane and the traffic situation on track. It’s been a solid start for all of us, so it’s great to see that. We just need to keep pushing and working to make our cars as best we can for qualifying and then work on the race.”
Arrpw McLaren had their three cars in the top six with Felx Rosenqvist having ended the session in fifth place with a time of 01:03.6929s and speaking following the action he commented saying:
Good session for us. I think we were in the top five for pretty much the whole session. I felt pretty good on both the Firestone Black and Red tires, though we really didn’t get a clean run on Reds. But the feeling was good, I think we’re in the window and we can work from there.
“That’s a challenging track. It’s definitely going to be a tough one for all of us – drivers, engineers, mechanics. But it’s fun and we’re in the game.”
Alexander Rossi in the No.7 NTT DATA Chevrolet ended the day in sixth place with a time of 01.03.7277s and speaking following the action he commented saying:
”It’s always crazy coming to a new place. There were a lot of theories of what it would be like, so it was nice to finally get out there. I think we’re starting from a pretty good place from a balance and performance standpoint. Certainly, everyone’s going to improve a lot overnight, and we just need to make sure we stay on top of the development of the track.”
Arrow McLaren Race Director Gain Ward commented saying:
“Decent start on a new track. You always have to find your way a little bit, but obviously our cars are all up there in the mix. Now is when the hard work starts. We have a lot to do to try and squeeze every bit of performance out of the car for tomorrow now that we have some real data to chew on. I have full faith in our team that we’re going to make steps overnight and we’ll be in the mix.”