Arrow McLaren Indy Toronto Grand Prix: Qualifying Report

Picking up a familiar face from the airport. Rebuilding a car overnight. In the past 24 hours, we've seen it all.

On Saturday morning, the team announced Théo Pourchaire was set to drive the No. 7 Ryde Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. In just a few hours, he landed in Toronto from Europe and was in the car for the afternoon qualifying session. 

Unfortunately, qualifying proved to be tricky for all Arrow McLaren cars, as the team struggled to transfer out of the first round. 

Pato O'Ward was met with impeding traffic during his qualifying run, and after a review affording only one penalty to the No. 10 car, ended the session P7. He will start P14 in tomorrow's race. Nolan Siegel will start P19 and Théo Pourchaire P26.  

Debrief today's qualifying session with the team as we prepare for main show on Sunday.

"It's been a tough weekend. Obviously, qualifying was really frustrating with cars getting in the way right in the peak of the window of the tires to be able to transfer. We were less than a tenth and a half to transfer, so I think we would have been okay without those implications. It is frustrating, knowing that we could have started further up, but we will be rolling off P14. Historically, this hasn't been one of our best tracks. It will be a tough one, but we will give it our best and see what the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet can do."

"Difficult qualifying session for us. It's not where we wanted to be, but we're getting the car into a happy window and we're getting there. We're making progress, so we'll continue to look into what we need to improve and see what we can do tomorrow. I think we'll be stronger in the race. We've always been able to move forward, and I have faith in the No. 6 SmartStop Arrow McLaren Chevrolet and the crew. I'm looking forward to Sunday."

Théo Pourchaire

"I was obviously not expecting to be here, so I am dealing with a good amount of jet lag. It was a bit of a stressful situation to get here, but we made it and I think we did okay. The No. 7 Ryde Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was good, and I adapted quickly. We only did nine laps, and I worked to try to learn the track the first time out with the new hybrid system, as well. I think we can be confident for tomorrow because the package looks pretty strong. It is not going to be easy, but I think we can grab some positions and complete every lap. I want to get this car as close to the front as I can for Alex."

Gavin Ward, Team Principal, Arrow McLaren, said:

"It was just a huge effort from the team and from Théo to get here in time for qualifying. It was important to get those laps in, and they will help us throughout the rest of the weekend. We'll try to get him up to speed filling in on the No. 7 Ryde Arrow McLaren Chevrolet for Alex, who we are hoping has a speedy recovery. We're obviously thinking about him, too. It has been a weekend of adversity, and then to have Pato's qualifying spoiled by being blocked was obviously disappointing. He will line up next to his championship rival, so we're going to try to beat him from there. I'm not sure if we had the pace to take it to the Andretti cars today. We'll be looking into ways to improve our street course package coming here next year but also for the rest of this weekend."

Session Times