Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward in the No.5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet starts Sunday’s Children’s Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park from third place.
The Mexican set a qualifying time of 01:05.9382s and speaking following the action he commented saying:
“We did some really good changes. I’m just really happy with what we did from practice 2 to qualifying. I mean, we missed it by less than a tenth, so we’re there. We’ve definitely found the lap time we wanted to. From practice to now working on the race car, it’s a different beast with the (tire degradation) and all that. You’ll see guys taking risks on the three-stopper, which ultimately is the quickest. But you can get hosed really easily by a yellow. The last couple of years, it’s been the fuel-save two-stopper, so I expect the Ganassis to be very quick. Obviously, Grosjean, it’s his second pole of the year, so I know he will be right on pace. I think for us, to have a good start, a good clean start. I don’t know what we’re going to do strategy-wise. Obviously, you want to go with the one that will win, so we’re just going to have to see what warmup says in terms of tire degradation from black to red and just play it from there.”
Felix Rosenqvist, No. 6 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR: starts the race from eighth place with a time of 01:06.0930s and speaking following the action he commented saying:
“I think there was more potential than that. Looking at Q1, we were pretty strong and Q2, I don’t know, it’s just so sensitive with tire warm-up and I just didn’t really feel like I had it in me or the car. Like, it wasn’t going to come. I did a decent lap but it wasn’t enough. Obviously, I’ve been close in the Fast Six three times in a row, so a bit bummed about that. But, honestly, where we started yesterday, I’m pretty happy to be P8. It’s a good spot, that gives us the fuel-save. Tomorrow, it could be to our advantage. We’re normally pretty good at that. Let’s see, you never know. Not too bad. My team, Arrow McLaren, always does a good job. Unfortunately, we have those weekends sometimes when you roll out, you don’t feel like you’re in it, and I think we did a really good turnaround from yesterday. We’re there. It’s super tight. Really good job from them, and we’ll see where we can end up tomorrow.”
Alexander Rossi, No. 7 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR starts the race from tenth with a time of 01:06.2091s and speaking following the action he said:
“It’s really disappointing. I mean, we thought we had a pretty easy top-six car and made a change there. You’re always so close, you kind of have to adjust to the track and evolution. Just made the wrong change. I think the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevy has been good all weekend. We started our very happy, we’ve been happy all weekend, we just made the wrong decision there. We know what to do for the race. It’s a constantly evolving championship and it’s so tight. You’re looking for hundredths, and so you’re always trying to optimize, and sometimes you take the step in the wrong direction.”
Arrow McLaren Race Director Gavin Ward commented saying:
Overall, we have to be really happy with getting all the cars in the top 12 again. It’s a difficult thing to do, and not many teams manage to put that together. We’re never happy if we don’t get pole, but Pato was within one tenth of a second. That’s close. Having a difficult start to the day, that’s a great recovery by that group.
“Felix was close to getting through there in Q2. Alexander missed the window on the tire a bit on his run, and he wasn’t as confident in the car as he was in Q1. The pace was there, but we will learn from it. All to play for tomorrow.”