Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward in the No.5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was super happy with how his Friday went at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
The Mexican driver who heads into the final race of 2023 in search of his first win of the season ended the day in second place and speaking following the action he said:
“I’m super happy with Friday’s session. The overnight changes that we made from the test were very positive. The track is going to keep gripping up, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow. It’s going to be a physical race, probably the most physical all season. I’m not sure what our strategy will be yet, but it’s going to be a really great fight.”
Alexander Rossi in the No.7 VELO Chevrolet was third fastest and says that the performance of the car carried over from Thursday’s open test and speaking following the action he said:
“The car carried over from yesterday, but the track was certainly different. It’s competitive. The Firestone Reds are a bit of a mystery, and I think that will be the case for everyone because nobody seemed to get a run on them. It was hard to get a run in with the red flags. That will be a curveball tomorrow, but we’re in a good spot right now.
On his final Friday as an Arrow McLaren driver before heading to Meyer Shank Racing in 2024, Felix Rosenqvist in the No.6 NTT DATA Chevrolet ended the day in 19th place and speaking following the action he said:
“I didn’t really get a lap in. There were a lot of red flags. I didn’t get a lap on Firestone Blacks, didn’t get one on Firestone Reds. Actually, I don’t think we completed a full lap on Reds. Luckily I think Alexander and Pato got some good laps in on the Blacks, so we have some good information in the team. Our car is quick, too, so it should be good
Arrow McLaren Race Director Gavin Ward commented saying:
“A tough one to judge out there today due to all the red flags. We only got a few full laps across all three cars, so we’ll have to work with what we’ve got. We like the pace we’ve got so far, so we’ll aim to keep that up and push hard tomorrow for qualifying.”