PREMA Racing's NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers Callum Ilott and Robert Shwartzman secured the team's best qualifying result for the at the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix where they will line up 16th and 24th respectively.
Shwartzman and Ilott were able to get plenty of running in the weekend's two 45-minute Free Practice sessions, split across Friday and Saturday.
Rain downpours descended on the track during the final half of second practice, but conditions had dried up for the start of qualifying.
Both of PREMA Racing's drivers were in the second group, beginning on the softer Firestone tires. Ilott looked strong in the first half of the segment, sitting inside the top six.
In his final tour, Ilott produced a solid effort to conclude the group segment in eighth, just half a tenth away from making the second part of qualifying but is set for his best start of the season.
Shwartzman meanwhile showed good speed at the start of the segment but ultimately finished 12th in what was a highly competitive group.
The team and drivers will now make final preparations overnight and in Sunday morning's warm up ahead of the 90-lap race with the green flag dropping at 13:47 ET.
# 83 - Robert Shwartzman
“Unfortunately, qualifying didn’t go well for us today. I was hoping for some rain because in those conditions during Free Practice the car felt quite good. Instead, it become quite windy during which unbalanced the car and I didn’t feel as confident with it. I didn’t manage to put it altogether for a proper lap, and while I don’t think it would have been top six this time, I think it could have been better. Now we will see what we can do tomorrow in the race.”
# 90 - Callum Ilott
“I think we’ve taken a really positive step this weekend so far, the car's been good in every practice session, and we’ve just been fine tuning it. Being half a tenth off advancing to the next part of qualifying, there's always a little bit more in it but it's nice to know that we were there or thereabouts to play so it’s a good step. We’ll focus on the race now, but I think we have a decent package here, which is a great step after Long Beach, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”