Arrow McLaren Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Practice and Qualifying Report

Streets of St. Petersburg

P2 and Qualifying Date: Saturday, March 4

Round: 1/17

Total laps: 100 Laps

Total race distance: 180 miles/289.68 km

Length: 1.8 miles/2.90 km

Number of turns: 14

Session start times:

  • Warm-Up: Sunday, 9:00 – 9:30 a.m. ET
  • Green Flag: Sunday, 12:30 p.m. ET

TUNE IN: Sunday, 12:30 p.m. ET on NBC

Practice 2: 10th, 1:00.9306

Total Laps: 21

Qualifying: 

  • Round 1, Group 1: 4th, 01:00.1146
  • Round 2: 4th, 00:59.7367
  • Firestone Fast Six: 3rd, 01:00.0163

Starting Position: P3

“We’ve got a car to fight with tomorrow. I’m really, really happy with it. From the first practice, we didn’t get the cleanest of runs on every single tire, but we knew we had a competitive car, so coming into qualifying, it was just all about executing. I’m excited for tomorrow, I really am.”

Practice 2: 8th, 1:00.8173

Total Laps: 18

Qualifying:

  • Round 1, Group 1: 1st, 00:59.9396
  • Round 2: 8th, 00:59.7971

Starting Position: P8

”It was a good qualifying. It’s tough when you miss out by a couple of hundreths. It’s so tight. I think there are six guys within the same tenth of a second. It’s hard to be mad about this spot because I did my lap, and our strategy was to go out early. I think the track maybe got a little bit better toward the end of the session, but that is race management, and it paid off in Q1 and maybe didn’t pay off in Q2. We’re up there, and we’re looking good for the race.”

Practice 2: 9th, 1:00.8394

Total Laps: 23

Qualifying:

  • Round 1, Group 2: 5th, 00:59.9527
  • Round 2: 12th, 01:00:0040

Starting Position: P12

”It was a good recovery from yesterday. I think we had some issues that we weren’t able to resolve, and those were rectified for the most part today. A little bit disappointed to be P12, but ultimately I think it was a good effort from the team to get us back into a competitive spot. The cars are quick, as you can see with the results from Pato and Felix got today. We’ll keep understanding overnight and come back tomorrow.”

Gavin Ward, Race Director, Arrow McLaren

“Pretty good start to the season qualifying for the team. Having all cars in the top 12 is a pretty good achievement with how tight this series is these days. At the end of the day, the key to the championship is getting consistent top-six finishes, and I think all of our drivers can do that tomorrow. We’ll get our heads down to try to figure out the best way to do that.”