2021 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg – Practice & Qualifying Report

#5: Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet, Vuse sign
Streets of St. Petersburg 
Date: Sunday, April 25 
Round: 2/17 
Race laps: 100 
Total race distance: 180 miles/289.68 km 
Length: 1.8 miles/2.89 km 
Number of turns: 14 
Remaining session start times: 
Green Flag: Sunday, 12:30 p.m. ET TUNE IN: Sunday, 12:00 p.m. ET on NBC 
Pato O’Ward – No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet
Practice 2: 10th, 1:00.4797Qualifying:Round One, Group One: 3rd, 1:00.6026Round Two: 4th, 1:00.3999Firestone Racing Fast Six: 6th, 1:01.0799Race Starting Position: 6th  “We just got done with qualifying here in St. Petersburg. We are sixth, starting on the outside of the third row. We had a quick car in qualifying but we just didn’t make quite the right call on either using reds or new blacks. The track was very different to what we felt in Practice 2, but we have a quick race car. We are going to be thinking about it tonight, and we are going to go get it tomorrow.”
Felix Rosenqvist – No. 7 Vuse Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet
Practice 2: 12th, 1:00.6291Qualifying: Round One, Group One: 9th, 1:00.9569Race Starting Position: 17th “Qualifying wasn’t good. We struggled with a bit of everything to be honest: locking front, locking rear, understeer, over steer; it was just not together. I feel like whatever the grip is, is getting more of the track but it’s kind of going away from us a little bit. We’ve got to analyze what we can do for the race to be a bit more competitive. I think in the race we always have a chance to go forward so we’re keeping a positive mind set.”
Taylor Kiel – President, Arrow McLaren SP
“Qualifying was okay, I think making the Firestone Racing Fast Six with Pato was certainly good. We didn’t know if we quite had the pace to crack into that group earlier today, so happy with the changes we made to get there. Certainly, disappointing again for Felix to have a tough qualifying session but you know we’ve seen time and time again people winning from last here. You can win from anywhere and Arrow McLaren SP will put our best foot forward tomorrow.”