TORONTO — Colton Herta scored his third career NTT P1 Award on the streets of Toronto and his second in a row on this course to win the Verizon P1 Award on Saturday at Exhibition Place.
Herta’s best lap was 59.8320 seconds in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda for Andretti Global on the 11-turn, 1.786-mile street circuit and will lead the field to the green flag to start Sunday’s Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto.
It was Herta’s second pole of the season, the 16th of his career and the third pole in the last four seasons in Toronto.
“We have a great car here, it’s plain and simple,” said Herta, who is the defending winner of the race. “I’d like to say we are better than everyone else, but the crew makes us look good.
“I’m so happy to be back here on the pole and try to win the race tomorrow. It seems like the soft tires are hard to hold onto, but we will know more after the warmup session on Sunday.”
Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing, who enters the race with a 129-point lead over Pato O’Ward in the battle for the NTT IndyCar Series Championship, was second at 1:00.1078.
“We have normally struggled quite a lot here in Toronto,” Palou said. “The tire was getting better each lap e were on the track. We’ll see if we can get the win from there.”
Marcus Armstrong was third for Meyer Shank at 1:00.3535 in the No. 66 Honda.
“It was a good day at the office,” Armstrong said. “The lap felt pretty, to be honest.
“The race will be different from qualifying on Sunday.
“See you in victory lane.”
Team Penske’s Will Power was fourth at 1:00.4519 in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet followed by Graham Rahal’s No. 15 Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing at 1:00.8600 and Kirkwood’s 1:04.5308 in the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda.
The two fastest Andretti Global drivers advanced to the Fast Six along with the driver with the most career poles in IndyCar history, Will Power of Team Penske.
Herta put down the target lap early in the six-minute session at 1:00.451 followed by Palou’s 1:00.637, but those times would drop as the clock ticked down.
That time held until the final minute when Armstrong made a charge, knocked Herta down the list briefly.
But Herta turned a spectacular lap at 59.832 to regain the fastest position. Kyle Kirkwood was set to make a bid at his teammate, but lost control in the final turn, swerved and headed down pit lane.
“I gave away the pole without a doubt,” Kirkwood said. “I had a huge snap on the one lap that I had a shot to win the pole.
“That didn’t feel very good to be honest. At least someone made up for it by winning the pole for Andretti. It seemed like a good idea to go for the pole but didn’t pull it off.”
