Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist in the No.6 NTT DATA Chevrolet had a great opening day of qualifying for the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as he recorded a four-lap average speed of 233.947MPH and speaking following the action he commented saying:
”I think it was a pretty big day for us. We have been good here the last couple of years, but today, to have all of the cars in the top eight with this competition is really hard. We saw with Tony today, even if he’s doing a perfect job, outside factors can play in and it can become really difficult in this field. Super proud of the whole team for just executing. That last run we did was just phenomenal, almost in a 234-mph average. That was pretty mind-blowing how we found so much speed. We weren’t super happy on our first run, so we had two or three reasons to think we were going to go quicker, and we kind of put them all together. What a run. Team Chevy as well, great job. Just a fun time to be Arrow McLaren right now. Everything kind of resets for tomorrow, but we are definitely feeling good right now.”
Alexander Rossi in the No.7 VELO Chevrolet was second fastest with a four-lap average of 233.528MPH and speaking following the action he commented saying:
“An amazing team day. I don’t have enough to say about the whole group. To get four cars in the top 12 – I can’t put into words how challenging that is. It’s really special to be a part of. Tomorrow’s going to be an amazing day, and hopefully one of us can be on pole.”
Tony Kanaan in the No.66 SmartStop Storage Chevrolet was sixth with a speed of 233.347MPH and speaking following the action he commented saying:
”We started the day a little bit more conservative, and we just kept digging. I definitely need to thank my teammates for it. They’re all in, and they kept supporting me and telling me, ‘You gotta do it again, you gotta do it again.’ Then finally, on the last run, we nailed it. Great team effort. It was nice, and it was unexpected. I don’t think I’ve ever done that many qualifying attempts in this place. I guess, because it was my last one, they kept sending me out.”
Pato O’Ward in the No.5 Arrow McLarn was eighth fastest with a speed of 122.252MPH and speaking following the action he commented saying:
”One attempt for us today in qualifying. Good enough to get us into the Fast 12. I would have loved to get in a second attempt there, but obviously it wasn’t worth it to risk our lap time just to get another run in. So, we’re ready for tomorrow, we have four very fast race cars and we’re ready to go.”
Gavin Ward Race Director of Arrow McLaren said:
“Saturday qualifying for the Indy 500 is, I think, the coolest day in motorsports. It can go either way on you. Today was a good day. We wanted to give each of our cars a shot at the pole, and we’ve got that – all four in the top eight and the two quickest of the day. Tomorrow is the day that counts, though. Strong day for the team. Let’s have some fun tomorrow.”