McLaren chief Zak Brown makes his feelings known after IndyCar front row lockout consisting Pato O'Ward

Pato O'Ward will start in pole position for the 2025 Thermal Club IndyCar race after topping the Fast 6 qualifying session and beating teammate Christian Lundgaard and Chip Ganassi's Alex Palou to it. McLaren CEO Zak Brown came out to hail the team as the papaya team boss made his feelings known after the front-low lockout.

The Thermal Club qualifying was the first time in IndyCar history that Arrow McLaren locked out the front row for a race. Zak Brown detailed his feelings about the astonishing performance of his drivers and the historic team feat. The McLaren CEO posted a picture of Pato O'Ward holding the pole position award on X.

“That’s a front row lockout at The Thermal Club — the first in @ArrowMcLaren team history! Mega laps by Pato and Christian. Let’s finish the job tomorrow. 👊,” read the post.

Pato O'Ward had a strong start to the weekend at Thermal Club finishing within the Top 6 in both practice sessions. The Mexican, along with his teammate Christian Lundgaard found pace in the qualifying session, easily making it through the first and second session, and then finishing 1-2 in the Fast 6.

Alex Palou was the favorite to take the pole position as he finished both practice sessions in the Top 2 and then topped the first and second qualifying sessions. However, the Spaniard was no match for Pato O'Ward or Christian Lundgaard in Fast 6, who optimized the used alternate tires the best.

However, the third Arrow McLaren driver Nolan Siegel had a subpar qualifying day as the 20-year-old was eliminated in the first qualifying session. The American will start the race in P16 with Juncos Hollinger Racing Conor Daly starting alongside him.

“Got to thank the guys”: Pato O'Ward praised Arrow McLaren for ‘dialing’ in the #5 entry for qualifying

Pato O'Ward took the pole position with a lap time of 1:39:9567, which was set on a used set of alternate tires, and was less than one-hundredth of a second slower than his fastest lap time in the second qualifying session. Although the Mexican had been in the groove since the practice session, he claimed that the team dialed the car perfectly during the qualifying session with minor tweaks.

Speaking with FOX after the qualifying session, Pato O'Ward said,

“I knew if we could get the car to my liking, I would get it done. I got to thank the guys. We've been working hard. Coming back here, we haven't had the best of weekends in the past. But we turned it around, we dialed it in after Q1 because I was somewhat happy with it but not perfect. We just made a little bit of an adjustment. As soon as we went out in Q2, I said 'I have got this.'” (0:09 onwards)

Christian Lundgaard was about two-tenths slower than his teammate, but still managed to secure P2, finishing ahead of CGR’s Alex Palou, who will start P3.