The season-opening session kicked off today on the Streets of St. Petersburg, Florida with Practice 1.

On the 1.8-mile street course, the three Arrow McLaren cars turned a total of 71 laps in the 75-minute session. Pato O'Ward ended first practice in 11th, followed by Felix Rosenqvist in 15th and Alexander Rossi in 21st.

Many drivers elected to use a new set of tires near the end of the first practice session before the checkered flag, dropping those who didn't down the leaderboard.

On Saturday, the Arrow McLaren team returns for one practice session and qualifying. Sunday's 100-lap race will be live on NBC at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Now, see what the Arrow McLaren's Racing Director Gavin Ward and drivers Pato, Felix and Alexander said after first practice.

Key info

Round	01/17
Where	Streets of St. Petersburg, Florida
When	Sunday, March 5
Race laps	100
Total race distance	180 miles / 289.68 km
Length	1.8 miles / 2.9 km
Number of turns	14
Follow	@ArrowMcLaren on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube

Practice 1

1:02.0177

23 laps

11th

"I'm very happy with the car. The team did a fantastic job on all the pre-event stuff to arrive with a way better baseline than what we've had in the years past. Some guys put on some new tires there in the end, but we didn't. I'm very happy with it. I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

INLINE-MEDIA BIG

Practice 1

1:02.1094

26 laps

15th

"I think we had a good start. It's kind of hard to read into the times because a lot of people changed their tires. We decided to save our tires for tomorrow, only using the one set we started with. We put up really competitive times even after 20-25 laps, so I'm really optimistic. I thought the feeling of the car was good. Being the first race of the year, it's all about how you feel about being back in the car and on a street course. I think everything felt natural, and I have a really good feeling going into the weekend."

Practice 1

1:02.4616

22 laps

21st

"It was a tough afternoon. There are a lot of differences for me, obviously, but the track seems to be a little bit unpredictable based on everyone's comments compared to last year. It's not quite the start we wanted, but we have plenty of time left."

Gavin Ward, Racing Director, Arrow McLaren, said:

"It was a really solid day, to be honest. It was a solid first session for the team. It seems like a lot of cars ran a second set of tires, and we didn't. We're trying to set ourselves up for the best place for qualifying. Pato and Felix seem pretty happy. And Rossi, we've got a little work to do there and dig in, but that's to be expected. Him being new to the team, there's a little more to figure out in that world. I don't think it's dire days by any means. We need to find a couple tenths, and we'll be right there."

Session times

Practice 2	Saturday, 10:00 - 11:00 a.m. ET
Qualifying	Saturday, 2:15 - 3:30 p.m. ET
Warmup	Sunday, 9:00 - 9:30 a.m. ET
Green Flag	Sunday, 12:30 p.m. ET on NBC

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