Colton Herta of Andretti Global has been the fastest IndyCar Series driver of the weekend on the streets of Toronto. He continued that trend by winning the NTT P1 Award on Saturday for Sunday’s Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto with a fast lap of 59.5431 seconds in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda.
The street race is at the 1.786-mile, 11-turn street course that winds around Canada’s Exhibition Place, the long-time home of the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto.
It was Herta’s 14th career IndyCar Pole and his third of the season.
He knocked teammate Kyle Kirkwood off the pole after Kirkwood’s best speed was completed with two seconds left in the session. Herta was still on track and Herta was able to nip the pole away from Kirkwood at the very end.
Kirkwood’s fast lap was at 59.6735 in the No. 27 AutoNation Honda. Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer-Shank was third at 59.8252 in the No. 50 Honda followed by Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin’s 59.9082 in the No. 3 Chevrolet, Romain Grosjean’s 1:00.0012 in the No. 77 Chevy for Juncos Hollinger Racing and David Malukas, who ran a 1:00.2109 in the No. 66 Honda for Meyer Shank Racing.
It was a 1-2-3 sweep for Honda with two cars from Andretti Global and two more from its engineering alliance partner Meyer Shank Racing.
“We need to stay the same,” Herta said. “This car has been a rocket ship all weekend. Luck hasn’t gone our way and we hope on Sunday, it does.
“You know one of the Andretti Global cars should be on the pole and luckily we got it.”
Kirkwood was just a tenth off the pole position.
“We ended up doing three laps on our tires on the first run and that used up the front,” Kirkwood said. “The pace was there, but I’m super happy to have a front-row lockout for Andretti Global. This is panning out very well for us this weekend.”
Grosjean locked up his brakes during the Fast Six but was able to keep it out of the wall and continue in the session.
First Segment, First Group
With 8:54 left in the first group of the first session, Hunter McElrea, who was making his first IndyCar Series start, crashed into the tire barriers. That brought out the red flag and meant an end to his qualification attempt.
McElrea was able to get back to his pit box and the Dale Coyne Racing crew surveyed the damage to the front of his car, the No. 18 Honda.
The green flag sent the cars back on track with eight minutes to go.
Kirkwood was the fastest driver early before Josef Newgarden took over No. 1 and then Felix Rosenqvist and Scott McLaughlin before Kirkwood fired off another fast lap at 1:00.1698.
Christian Rasmussen knocked Newgarden out of the top six. Scott Dixon appeared to be safely in the six drivers to advance before he made a mistake on track that was costly.
He was unable to advance.
Kirkwood was the fastest in that session at 1:00.1698 in the No. 27 Honda followed by McLaughlin’s 1:00.3568, Rasmussen’s 1:00.4498, Rosenqvist’s 1:00.4720, David Malukas’ 1:00.4937 and Newgarden’s 1:00.5476.
Marcus Armstrong was the first that missed the cut at 1:00.5732 followed by Dixon, Santino Ferrucci, Nolan Siegel, Toby Sowery, Pietro Fittipaldi and McElrea.
First Segment, Second Group
Theo Pourchaire, the late replacement for Alexander Rossi after he suffered a broken thumb in a crash during Friday’s practice, arrived at the track a little over one hour before qualifications.
His first lap in qualifications was Pourchaire’s first laps at Toronto.
“It was pond jumping,” McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown said. “We thought he was the best driver. Simple as that. He knows the team. We feel like we are throwing him on the deep end here, learning the circuit for the first time in qualifying. He’s good and we are looking forward to seeing him back in the car.
“Expectations have to be low in qualifications, but I think we’ll see him do well in the race. We’ll see what happens with Alexander Rossi’s recovery.”
Midway through the session, Herta took over the No. 1 position from Rinus VeeKay. Romain Grosjean displaced VeeKay for the second-fastest speed as the clock hit 5:56 left in this group.
When the first round was concluded, Power was on top at 1:00.0650 followed by Marcus Ericsson’s 1:00.1526, Herta’s 1:00.1885, Palou’s 1:00.2838, Graham Rahal’s 1:00.4838 and Romain Grosjean’s 1:00.5191.
Those who missed out were Agustin Canapino, Pato O’Ward, defending winner Christian Lundgaard, Kyffin Simpson, Rinus VeeKay, Linus Lundqvist, Pourchaire and Sting Ray Robb.
That would change, however.
With the field whittled to 12, IndyCar race control reviewed a situation involving Palou during the first segment. At question was where Palou had impeded the progress of another driver behind him.
IndyCar took away his two fastest laps, knocking him out of advancing into the second segment. Palou, the championship points leader, climbed out of the car and threw down his gloves, doomed to an 18th-place starting position. Canapino advanced into the second segment.
“We need to look at that, I do not agree at the moment,” Palou said. “We had three cars in front of me. I could not really go anywhere.
“Do not agree, but that’s it.
“It doesn’t help, for sure. We have a fast car and as long as we have a fast car, we can move. It is frustrating.”
Lundgaard, the defending winner of the race, did not make it out of the first segment.
“We are lacking balance and here we are,” Lundgaard said. “We were lucky to get the pole last year. We managed it well last year. This year, we did not purely have the pace, but he race is tomorrow and let’s see if we can win that.”
O’Ward, who also did not advance, blew off an interview with TV’s Dillon Welch.
Three of the top five drivers in the championship did not advance.
Pourchaire’s rear tires began to blister because of the lack of time in practice. The driver climbed out of the car after a few laps to save tires for the race.
Second Segment
With Palou out and Canapino in, the green flag waved to start the second segment.
Late in the session, Kirkwood kissed the wall on one of his fast laps but was able to advance to second behind Herta with 4:30 left in the segment.
Malukas went into the drive-through area to cause a local yellow and lost his fastest lap. But he was able to battle back with another fast lap and make it into the Fast Six.
Will Power avoided a massive crash when his No. 12 Chevrolet went sideways but was able to save his racing machine from the wall.
When the session was completed, Rosenqvist was the fastest driver at 59.5960 and advanced a group of six into the Firestone Fast Six. Those included Kirkwood at 59.6669, Grosjean at 59.7381, Herta at 59.7352, McLaughlin at 59.7379 and Malukas at 59.8606.
Newgarden was seventh, the first driver who failed to advance into the Firestone Fast Six. Others included Rahal, Power, Canapino, Ericsson and Rasmussen.