background image

Arrow McLAREN Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix: Qualifying Report

"We'll look forward to have a strong race tomorrow."

Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team logo

One hard-fought qualifying session. 

The NTT INDYCAR SERIES paddock remains one of the most competitive fields in motorsport and the story was no different in today's qualifying session.

Pato O'Ward and the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet crew transfered through Rounds 1-3 of qualifying, finishing fourth in the Firestone Fast Six. 

Alexander Rossi and Théo Pourchaire were unsuccessful at advancing out of Round 1 and will start the race from 16th and 24th, respectively. 

The team will take on the rollercoaster of Barber Motorsports Park once again tomorrow, hitting the track at 10:15 a.m. ET for morning warmup before the 90-lap race on NBC.  

Location Barber Motorsports Park
Race Date Sunday, April 28
Round 3 out of 17
Total Laps 90 laps
Total Race Distance 207 miles / 333.1 km
Length 2.3 miles / 3.7 km
Number of Turns 17
Pato O'Ward
Practice 2 1:06.7528 6th
Qualifying - Round 1, Group 1 1:05.8193 2nd
Qualifying - Round 2 1:06.0374 5th
Qualifying - Firestone Fast Six 1:06.2940 4th
Qualifying Results   4th

"We definitely squeezed out a lot of what the car had in it today. We'll be starting second row, P4, so I think we'll be looking good for a strong race tomorrow. We'll have to get creative on the strategy. Team Penske will be really strong, so we'll see if we can make our way forward and get ourselves on the podium."

Alexander Rossi
Practice 2 1:06.8634 11th
Qualifying - Round 1, Group 2 1:06.5054 8th
Qualifying Results   16th

"We missed a lot of lap time, so I think there's nothing you can do other than try to figure it out. We're quite a ways off, and in previous qualifying sessions this season, we missed the execution side with a pretty good car. Today the execution was there, but there was no lap time. We'll look into why we didn't feel much quicker on Firestone reds. There are a lot of questions. It's been a pretty tough weekend so far."

No. 6 onsemi Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

Théo Pourchaire, Driver, No. 6 onsemi Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:

Practice 2 1:07.6949 23rd
Qualifying - Round 1, Group 2 1:06.9052 12th
Qualifying Position 24th  

"Everything I learned from Long Beach is out of the window in a way and we're starting from zero. It's not easy jumping into new tracks that I am unfamiliar with, especially one of the toughest ones on the calendar here in Barber. It's a high-commitment track and I enjoyed it. Our qualifying was not too bad until I made a mistake into Turn 12 and 13. I lost most of my time there and thought I could have been much closer to my teammate Alexander. I continue to learn every single day, and tomorrow with the race we will give our best to overtake a lot of cars for a great race. I am a lot better in the races and enjoy managing the tires and saving fuel. Last weekend we were able to push forward, and I think we can do the same, perhaps even better, here tomorrow."

Gavin Ward, Team Principal, Arrow McLaren, said:

"Another NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying session and another reminder that it is quite competitive out here. Pato and the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet team did a great job to squeeze everything out of it today, but we didn't have the performance to fight for pole. Alexander just missed out on pushing through Q1; a lot of people were in that boat today. Théo continues to learn with a steep learning curve in INDYCAR without test time. I've been really happy with him, and I know he is still building up to it. We'll look forward to have a strong race tomorrow."

Session Start Times

Warmup Sunday, April 28 10:15 - 10:45 a.m. ET Peacock
Tune In Sunday, April 21 1:00 p.m. ET NBC
Green Flag Sunday, April 21 1:40 p.m. ET NBC