Arrow McLaren 2023 Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix Practice and Qualifying Report

Barber Motorsports Park

Practice and qualifying date: Saturday, April 29

Round: 4/17

Total laps: 90 Laps

Total race distance: 207 miles/333.13 km

Length: 2.38 miles/3.83 km

Number of turns: 17

Session start times:

• Green Flag: Sunday, 2:30 p.m. CT

TUNE IN: Sunday, 2:00 p.m. CT on NBC

Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

Practice 2: 9th, 01:06.8223

Total Laps: 21

Qualifying:

• Round 1, Group 2: 2nd, 01:05.7400
• Round 2: 2nd, 01:05.7512
• Firestone Fast Six: 3rd, 01:05.9382

Starting Position: P3

“We missed it by less than a tenth of a second, so we’re right there. We definitely found the lap time that we wanted to after Practice 2. Now, it’s about working on the race car. In the race, it’s a different beast with the tire degradation.
 
“I think you’ll see guys taking risks on the three-stopper, but you can get hosed by a yellow. The last few years, the winner has been the fuel-saving two-stopper, so I expect the Ganassi cars to be really quick, and Grosjean after winning his second pole this year. For us, we need to have a good start, but not sure yet what we will do strategy-wise. Obviously, we want to go with the one that’s going to win, right?”

Felix Rosenqvist, No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet 

Practice 2: 13th, 01:06.9628

Total Laps: 19

Qualifying:

• Round 1, Group 2: 5th, 01:05.8696
• Round 2: 8th, 01:06.0930

Starting Position: P8

“A big improvement from yesterday. I’m pretty happy with it after Practice 1, because we weren’t really in the game. We had a different car today, and now we’re in the ballpark. It’s tight, and we had a really great Q1, but in Q2, for whatever reason, we didn’t have much more. Overall, I’m bummed to be missing the Firestone Fast Six for the third time in a row by hundredths of a second, basically. We did a good job recovering, so we can win from there.”

Alexander Rossi, No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet 

Practice 2: 8th, 01:06.7808

Total Laps: 20

Qualifying:

• Round 1, Group 1: 3rd, 01:05.6939
• Round 2: 10th, 01:06.2091

Starting Position: P10

“Pretty disappointing. We had a car to get to the Firestone Fast Six and we just got overzealous with some of the changes. The baseline is good and we’ll get after it tomorrow.”

Gavin Ward, Race Director, Arrow McLaren

“Overall, we have to be really happy with getting all the cars in the top 12 again. It’s a difficult thing to do, and not many teams manage to put that together. We’re never happy if we don’t get pole, but Pato was within one tenth of a second. That’s close. Having a difficult start to the day, that’s a great recovery by that group.
 
“Felix was close to getting through there in Q2. Alexander missed the window on the tire a bit on his run, and he wasn’t as confident in the car as he was in Q1. The pace was there, but we will learn from it. All to play for tomorrow.”