Arrow McLaren Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Friday Practice Report

Day 1 in central Ohio is done and dusted.

The Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team is racing on the permanent road course of Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and all three cars were on track for Practice 1 on Friday.

Pato O'Ward set the fastest lap of the day to finish the session first, laying down a lap that was nearly two tenths quicker than his pole lap in 2022. Alexander Rossi ended the session in ninth, and Felix finished the day with the 13th-quickest lap.

See what the drivers and Racing Director Gavin Ward said after the opening day at Mid-Ohio.

Pato O'Ward, Driver, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, said:

"It was a good start here for us in Mid-Ohio. We made some good changes to the car and ended the practice in a really nice spot. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. We’ll see if the rain decides to make an appearance or not, but so far, so good."

Alexander Rossi, Driver, No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, said:

"It was OK. It’s always fun coming back here. It’s an awesome track to drive on. We’re a little bit further off than we wanted for the first session, but the good thing about having a teammate this quick is that you’ve got good stuff to look at."

Felix Rosenqvist, Driver, No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, said:

"Good practice for us. We were sort of in the top for most of the session, but then on the Firestone Reds, for whatever reason, we didn’t improve. We will have to look at that, because Pato had the biggest step of everyone. I think he found a second, and we couldn’t find anything. It seems to be a bit inconsistent through the field but overall good."

Gavin Ward, Racing Director, Arrow McLaren, said:

"It’s always good to finish a session on top of the time sheets, but it was an interesting one today. It was a bit of a change with the repave in Turn 1. The tires are always an interesting topic every year when we come back to a track, and I think today, you had to get your lap done at the peak. It was actually more spread out than a typical NTT INDYCAR SERIES session. I feel like we’ve got a little bit of homework to do to get all three cars up there, but at least we have a good reference point."

Session Times