Written by Sean McKean
The IndyCar field took to Toronto today for the first ever outing with the hybrid power units at a street course. With the deploy/regen aspect, figuring out when and where to use it would be pivotal for this session.
Round 1
Before anyone could set a representative lap time, the red flag came out. In Turn 8 – a corner that’s caught out many this weekend – Hunter McElrea lost grip and hit the tyre barrier. Although he drove back to the pits with little damage, the debutant did not get to set a proper lap time.
Once the red flag was lifted, Kyle Kirkwood set the pace early on and led the group for the majority of the session. Come the chequered flag, the six advancing were Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, Christian Rasmussen, Kirkwood, and David Malukas.
Group B was headlined by the earlier arrival of Theo Pourchaire – Rossi’s substitute for the rest of the weekend following his practice crash.
Although Pourchaire did not do well in his first laps, Herta continued to show his session-topping pace in this session as well. He would remain uncontested, but the main storylines came from Pato O’Ward and Alex Palou. O’Ward, on a flying lap, came up to the Chip Ganassi driver as he was warming up, which ruined the Mexican’s lap, subsequently not advancing to the second round.
The drivers to advance were Herta, Will Power, Graham Rahal, Marcus Ericsson, Romain Grosjean, and Agustin Canapino.
Second-Round Drivers:
Herta
Kirkwood
Rasmussen
Grosjean
Rahal
McLaughlin
Newgarden
Ericsson
Rosenqvist
Malukas
Power
Canapino
Round 2
Colton Herta continued his weekend-long pace by going to the top to begin Round 2 – even being within three-hundredths of a sub-one-minute lap time. But, his teammate, Kyle Kirkwood, slotted in second with past just as quick.
However, with only a minute remaining, the pace picked up. Josef Newgarden was the first to go sub-one-minute, but four drivers soon jumped ahead of him. Felix Rosenqvist was the one to top the sheets with a 59.5960.
The six drivers that made it were Rosenqvist, Kirkwood, Romain Grosjean, Herta, Scott McLaughlin, and David Malukas.
Fast 6
The first driver to set a lap was also the first to cause an incident, with Grosjean locking up into the runoff in Turn 8. He did not hit anything, but the Frenchman lost his lap time.
Herta continued his consistency by going to the top on the first run with a 1:00.0733. Following behind him were McLaughlin and Grosjean.
For the second run, Malukas opened up with a 1:04, but Herta followed with another sub-one-minute lap time. However, Kyle Kirkwood went to provisional pole with a 59.67.
This challenge was for nought, as Colton Herta took his 14th career pole in Toronto. Kyle Kirkwood slotted in behind to make it an Andretti 1-2. Felix Rosenqvist pulls his Meyer Shank Racing team into third followed by Scott McLaughlin in fourth. Romain Grosjean held onto fifth at the end. Rounding out the Fast 6 was David Malukas.
Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto qualifying results:
Colton Herta
Kyle Kirkwood
Felix Rosenqvist
Scott McLaughlin
Romain Grosjean
David Malukas
Josef Newgarden
Graham Rahal
Will Power
Agustin Canapino
Marcus Ericsson
Christian Rasmussen
Marcus Armstrong
Pato O’Ward
Scott Dixon
Christian Lundgaard
Santino Ferrucci
Alex Palou
Nolan Siegel
Kyffin Simpson
Toby Sowery
Rinus VeeKay
Pietro Fittipaldi
Linus Lundqvist
Hunter McElrea
Theo Pourchaire
Sting Ray Robb
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