Colton Herta of Andretti Global backed up his speed from Friday with the fastest lap time in Saturday morning’s IndyCar practice session for Sunday’s Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto.
The street race is at the 1.786, 11-turn street course winds around Canada’s Exhibition Place, the long-time home of the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto.
Herta’s fast lap was 1:00.5763 in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda. Teammate Kyle Kirkwood was second at 1:00.7137 in the No. 27 AutoNation Honda followed by Team Penske’s Will Power at 1:00.8014 in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet.
Click here for the full results.
“It’s typical for us to be quick on street courses and this one suits us better than others because of how bumpy it is,” Kirkwood said. “Extremely happy with the car, but there is a lot more left in it so I’m happy to be second heading into qualifying.
“I’m looking forward to qualifying to go out and push for the entire lap. I think we’ll have a really good shot at the pole.”
Scott Dixon was fourth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda at 1:00.8539 with Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Alex Palou rounding out the top five at 1:00.8610 in the No. 10 DHL Honda.
Pourchaire In For Rossi
Theo Pourchaire of France was on his way to Toronto from Europe after he was named to replace Alexander Rossi, who broke his right thumb in a crash in Friday’s practice.
Pourchaire is going to have a difficult time arriving in time for qualifications later Saturday.
“It’s going to be tight for qualifying,” Arrow McLaren Team Principal Gavin Ward said. “We’re doing everything we can. He got a plane that left Niece, France, flew to Zurich (actually Frankfort, Germany) and Zurich to Toronto. We’re doing everything to expedite him getting through Customs. We’ll meet him at the airport. The quickest option is to get him on a train at Union Station downtown, have a car meet him there and get him to the track.
“The plane lands at 12:50 p.m. (Eastern) so as you can tell, it’s going to be pretty tight.
“We have all the seat fit accommodations. He has his helmet with him. We’re doing everything we can here.”
According to Arrow McLaren, the team announced Rossi was out for the weekend at 6 p.m. Friday. Ten minutes later, Arrow McLaren Sporting Director Tony Kanaan called Pourchaire. A flight was booked at 6:37 p.m. Friday.
Back in Indianapolis, shop manager Doug Tapscott picked up Pourchaire’s firesuit and seat, and drove overnight from Indianapolis to Toronto.
Race prep and on-board footage was sent to Pourchaire at 10 p.m. Friday and he boarded a plane from Nice, France to Frankfurt, German at 12 midnight.
He landed in Frankfurt at 1:30 a.m., debrief with the team and began race prep with Kanaan.
He departed for Toronto at 4 p.m. and is scheduled to arrive at 12:50 p.m.
All times were in the Eastern Time Zone.
More Practice
Marcus Ericsson had to have a new Honda engine installed overnight.
In the early portion of practice, defending winner Christian Lundgaard set the pace at 1:01.8748 followed by David Malukas’ 1:01.9280 and Hunter McElrea, third at 1:01.9570.
“I’m getting used to IndyCar – it’s impossible to get a clear lap,” McElrea said. “Going to have some fun.”
With 23 minutes left, the top five were Colton Herta at 1:00.7636, Will Power’s 1:00.8014, Scott McLaughlin’s 1:00.8696, Lundgaard’s 1:01.1739 and O’Ward’s 1:01.2394.
Marcus Armstrong bottomed out on one of the turns, launching the rear of his car into the fence near Turn 7. The tire scraped the wall, and the car had to return to the pits to repair the damage. That was with 15 minutes left in the session.
Pietro Fittipaldi slowed down in front of the charging Felix Rosenqvist, who was set for a flying lap. He had to avoid the much slower Honda driven by Fittipaldi.
When Fittipaldi later spun after locking up the brakes, he was able to refire the engine with the Hybrid Assist Unit. O’Ward also spun with four minutes left and brought the car onto pit lane.
The end of the session included a big stack up of cars, trying to get the proper spacing for a qualifying simulation.
“Man, there’s 10 cars here, at least,” Graham Rahal radioed to his crew as he had to abort a fast lap.