PREMA Racing’s final qualifying of its debut NTT INDYCAR Series season saw Robert Shwartzman and Callum Ilott complete a clean session securing 17th and 18th respectively for the Music City Grand Prix.
The weekend started with Free Practice on Saturday morning, with both drivers completing a number of laps and gathering data ahead of qualifying.
Shwartzman was the first of the two PREMA Racing drivers to complete his qualifying run, and he produced a consistent run with a two-lap average speed of 199.546 mph. This saw him third fastest after the first group of seven qualifiers.
Team-mate Ilott followed and showed solid pace across his qualifying run, setting an average speed of 200.822 mph over his two laps. After the first group of drivers he sat second.
At the halfway point in the session, Ilott and Shwartzman sat third and seventh respectively on the leaderboard. Once all drivers had made their attempts, qualifying concluded with Ilott ninth and Shwartzman 19th.
However, due to an engine change, Ilott has received a nine-place grid penalty and will line up from 18th.
The team now have the high-line and final practice session beginning at 16:30 Eastern time (CET -6) before final preparations are made overnight ahead of the 225-lap race tomorrow at 14:45 Eastern.
#83 ROBERT SHWARTZMAN
"We’ve just completed our final qualifying of the year. I did my best, we made some changes from Free Practice this morning, but we could have been a bit more trimmed. However, we didn’t want to risk it in qualifying as it’s the final race and we’re battling for the Rookie of the Year title, so it’s important to get a decent result. I’m happy with the car balance so hopefully that will be good for the race tomorrow as well and we can be competitive, gain some positions and have some fun."
#90 CALLUM ILOTT
"Overall a pretty good qualifying run as we found some speed from practice earlier this morning. I was a little bit loose on the first lap, but I managed to correct that and still be fast. The guys and girls at PREMA Racing have done a great job especially in the gap after Milwaukee to recover and find some speed. It’s a shame about the penalty, but we’ll see what happens tomorrow."