Théo Pourcher, last year’s Formula 2 champion, returned to the No. 6 car in Detroit after missing the Indy 500 and achieved the best result among the Arrow McLaren drivers in yesterday’s qualifying.
At the same time, Pourcher is a newcomer to the American series and is only competing in his fourth race, while Pato O’Ward and Alex Rossi, his teammates, are professionals with many years of experience. However, conditions were such that Theo had better luck yesterday, even though the city ring in the ‘automotive capital’ of the US is known for having the roughest, bumpiest surface of any circuit of the season.
The Mexican finished only twelfth, also because the brakes on his Dallara caught fire, and he was also angry that the team sent him out for the decisive attempt at the very end of qualifying. It ended when O’Ward’s car stopped.
Rossi had his own reasons for dissatisfaction: traffic prevented him from showing a higher result, but on narrow city roads this is a completely typical phenomenon. However, he will have to start from 17th position in today’s race.
But Theo Pourcher was very satisfied with the way he handled the matter, even though it was his first time performing at the Detroit circuit, which has a very strange configuration: a short circle with a length of only 2647 m consisting of straight sections of varying lengths, usually connected by 90-degree bends.
“Such circuits do not exist on the Formula 1 calendar; the surface on all circuits must be very smooth,” the 20-year-old French driver told Racer. – Formula 2 cars also need smooth tracks, but primarily for F1. But the IndyCar has a very strong chassis and I enjoy driving this car, even on such a bumpy track.
You literally have to fight with the car at any time, even on straight stretches. You don’t feel like you have 100% control over the behavior because there are so many bumps that one wheel of the car is constantly hanging in the air. It’s a bit crazy, but I really enjoy racing here!
The weekend started well, in the first practice I was just trying to get to know the track and adapt to the car again. We then took a noticeable step forward in the second practice, improving the settings in many ways, and overall I was pleased with the way our speed increased from practice to qualifying. I think we could have even gotten into the top six, but the result is still not bad.”
Seventh starting position is indeed Theo’s best IndyCar qualifying result to date; Moreover, yesterday he proved to be the fastest of all newcomers to the series who are spending their debut season.
And Colton Herta, an Andretti driver, won pole for the first time this season.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
