Toronto IndyCar: Herta on pole, bad luck for Power, Palou, Rahal

Firestone Fast Six

The drivers didn’t bother with sighting laps on Firestone primaries, instead heading straight out on alternates, and Alexander Rossi produced a 59.6090, ahead of Scott Dixon.

However, Newgarden scorched around in 59.5257sec despite grazing the wall. That would have looked good enough for pole but David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing w/HMD-Honda came within 0.0287sec, and then Herta found a remarkable quarter second on used red tires to deliver 59.2698sec. Dixon, seeking his first road course pole since 2016, fell a mere 0.0894sec short, demoting Newgarden and Rossi down to the second row and Malukas to fifth.

Scott McLaughlin was the fastest driver to have never seen the Toronto 1.786-mile street course before this weekend.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	26	Colton Herta	59.2698	59.2698	0.000	4	4	59.2698	2		5	108.480	6:21.8679	Honda	A	17	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
2	9	Scott Dixon	59.3592	0.0894	0.0894	5	5	59.3592	3		4	108.317	6:41.0369	Honda	A	8	Chip Ganassi Racing
3	2	Josef Newgarden	59.5257	0.2559	0.1665	3	3	59.5257	2		2	108.014	4:49.1005	Chevy	A	1	Team Penske
4	27	Alexander Rossi	59.5544	0.2846	0.0287	3	4	59.6430	2		1	107.962	6:15.6926	Honda	A	18	Andretti Autosport
5	18	David Malukas	59.6140	0.3442	0.0596	4	4	59.6140	3		3	107.854	5:58.8862	Honda	A	14	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
6	3	Scott McLaughlin	59.9558	0.6860	0.3418	1	4	1:00.0505	2		6	107.239	6:31.9159	Chevy	A	2	Team Penske

Q2

Josef Newgarden was the first driver into the 59s, but the Andretti Autosport pair of Colton Herta and Alexander Rossi soon pushed him down, with a 59.5391 from Herta, with Felix Rosenqvist improving on him too.

Rookie David Malukas, delivered a brilliant 59.4638 for Dale Coyne Racing /HMD – the first 108mph lap of the weekend, but both Rossi and Newgarden demoted him, Rossi producing a 59.3709 – 108.295mph. Still, it was enough to see him into the Firestone Fast Six for the second time this year.

Dixon, Herta and Scott McLaughlin would also advance.

Ilott in the Juncos Hollinger-Chevrolet was seventh ahead of Rosenqvist in the Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy, just ahead of championship leader Marcus Ericsson.

Lundgaard was 10^th for RLL, ahead of Romain Grosjean who looked somewhat subdued after his shunt this morning, while teammate Devlin DeFrancesco had his two fastest laps deleted as a result of inadvertently holding up Herta after recovering from an incident in Turn 1.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	27	Alexander Rossi	59.3709	59.3709	0.000	6	6	59.3709	4		5	108.295	9:22.0892	Honda	A	18	Andretti Autosport
2	2	Josef Newgarden	59.4614	0.0905	0.0905	7	8	59.9912	5		6	108.131	10:29.9203	Chevy	A	1	Team Penske
3	18	David Malukas	59.4638	0.0929	0.0024	7	8	1:01.7969	5		9	108.126	9:53.1035	Honda	A	14	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
4	9	Scott Dixon	59.5348	0.1639	0.0710	7	8	59.8079	5		3	107.997	10:12.8181	Honda	A	8	Chip Ganassi Racing
5	26	Colton Herta	59.5391	0.1682	0.0043	6	8	1:02.2221	5		2	107.990	10:05.7327	Honda	A	17	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
6	3	Scott McLaughlin	59.5876	0.2167	0.0485	7	8	59.8181	5		11	107.902	10:01.2038	Chevy	A	2	Team Penske
7	77	Callum Ilott	59.6352	0.2643	0.0476	7	8	1:00.1544	5		7	107.816	10:18.0090	Chevy	A	26	Juncos Hollinger Racing
8	7	Felix Rosenqvist	59.6630	0.2921	0.0278	7	8	1:04.2278	4		10	107.765	9:59.2660	Chevy	A	6	Arrow McLaren SP
9	8	Marcus Ericsson	59.8527	0.4818	0.1897	7	8	1:00.0731	5		1	107.424	10:33.5490	Honda	A	7	Chip Ganassi Racing
10	30	Christian Lundgaard	59.9151	0.5442	0.0624	8	8	59.9151	5		12	107.312	10:37.0287	Honda	A	21	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
11	28	Romain Grosjean	1:00.0819	0.7110	0.1668	8	8	1:00.0819	5		8	107.014	10:42.3234	Honda	A	19	Andretti Autosport
12	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	1:14.8882	15.5173	14.8063	4	4	1:14.8882	4		4	85.856	6:32.7911	Honda	A	20	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport

Q1 Group 2

Andretti Autosport’s rookie Devlin DeFrancesco, in front of his home crowd, was sent out on reds from the start of the session and delivered a 60.1543sec but then he caused a local yellow at Turn 3. However, he got going again under his own power but almost simultaneously, Alex Palou ground to a halt, and by the time the track was cleared there was time enough for IndyCar to allow drivers just one last crack at a flying lap.

Herta moved up to the top of the charts ahead of DeFrancesco, with Josef Newgarden third, ahead of Romain Grosjean, Felix Rosenqvist and Christian Lundgaard.

Kyle Kirkwood smacked a wall at Turn 6 and the car spun into Turn 8, which brought out a red. The big losers from that stoppage were Lundgaard’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan teammate Graham Rahal, who couldn’t advance despite a strong weekend for the squad, but even unluckier was Will Power, who was over three-tenths up on Herta but had to abandon the lap and wound up eighth.

Conor Daly lost his two best laps for holding up Herta on a flying lap.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	26	Colton Herta	1:00.0681	1:00.0681	0.000	6	6	1:00.0681	5		1	107.039	11:53.5840	Honda	A	17	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
2	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	1:00.1543	0.0862	0.0862	2	5	1:03.1758	4		9	106.885	12:24.7753	Honda	A	20	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
3	2	Josef Newgarden	1:00.1584	0.0903	0.0041	6	6	1:00.1584	5		13	106.878	12:01.6967	Chevy	A	1	Team Penske
4	28	Romain Grosjean	1:00.2755	0.2074	0.1171	3	6	1:08.7132	5		10	106.670	12:35.1340	Honda	A	19	Andretti Autosport
5	7	Felix Rosenqvist	1:00.3655	0.2974	0.0900	3	3	1:00.3655	0		5	106.511	4:19.3792	Chevy	A	6	Arrow McLaren SP
6	30	Christian Lundgaard	1:00.5856	0.5175	0.2201	3	6	1:01.6459	5		3	106.124	12:16.1771	Honda	P	21	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
7	15	Graham Rahal	1:00.6805	0.6124	0.0949	3	6	1:00.6868	5		4	105.958	12:18.9030	Honda	P	13	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
8	12	Will Power	1:00.7974	0.7293	0.1169	3	6	1:08.3361	5		2	105.755	12:39.4871	Chevy	A	11	Team Penske
9	60	Simon Pagenaud	1:00.7974	0.7293	0.0000	6	6	1:00.7974	5		6	105.755	11:58.9714	Honda	A	25	Meyer Shank Racing
10	14	Kyle Kirkwood	1:00.8533	0.7852	0.0559	2	5	1:01.5112	4		11	105.657	12:05.7440	Chevy	A	12	AJ Foyt Enterprises
11	21	Rinus VeeKay	1:01.0870	1.0189	0.2337	3	6	1:00.7372	5		7	105.253	12:12.4057	Chevy	A	16	Ed Carpenter Racing
12	10	Alex Palou	1:03.0514	2.9833	1.9644	1	3	1:00.9110	0		12	101.974	4:25.5183	Honda	P	9	Chip Ganassi Racing
13	20	Conor Daly	1:05.2593	5.1912	2.2079	1	5	1:14.3039	4		8	98.524	12:48.5373	Chevy	A	15	Ed Carpenter Racing

Q1 Group 1

Callum Ilott of Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet and Jimmie Johnson of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda went straight out on the Firestone alternate compound tires, the ‘reds’, while Scott McLaughlin set the fastest time on the primaries, clocking a 60.0527sec (107.066mph) ahead of compatriot Scott Dixon and Marcus Ericsson, before they hit pitlane to grab their reds.

On reds, Alexander Rossi delivered the first sub 1min lap, clocking a 59.8731sec to go fastest, and while he trimmed that next time by, it was Dixon who moved to the top with a 59.6996sec run, which was then edged by teammate Ericsson who produced 59.6875 (107.721mph).

Ilott’s tactic worked well and he made it through to Q2 ahead of fellow rookie David Malukas who has looked strong all weekend for Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports-Honda, and McLaughlin.

The surprise failure to graduate was Pato O’Ward, whose Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet was only eighth fastest, confessing to Peacock, “we haven’t had the speed all weekend.”

Dalton Kellett was unable to reach the track due to a suspected mechanical issue.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	8	Marcus Ericsson	59.6875	59.6875	0.000	8	8	59.6875	5		1	107.721	10:22.9263	Honda	A	321	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	9	Scott Dixon	59.6996	0.0121	0.0121	7	8	1:02.5953	5		3	107.699	10:30.7360	Honda	A	254	Chip Ganassi Racing
3	27	Alexander Rossi	59.7724	0.0849	0.0728	6	6	59.7724	4		5	107.568	9:08.6498	Honda	A	229	Andretti Autosport
4	77	Callum Ilott	59.8315	0.1440	0.0591	7	8	1:00.1691	5		9	107.462	10:40.9081	Chevy	A	97	Juncos Hollinger Racing
5	18	David Malukas	59.8686	0.1811	0.0371	8	8	59.8686	5		4	107.395	9:51.5905	Honda	A	145	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
6	3	Scott McLaughlin	59.9217	0.2342	0.0531	8	8	59.9217	5		2	107.300	10:14.4536	Chevy	A	252	Team Penske
7	45	Jack Harvey	1:00.0212	0.3337	0.0995	8	8	1:00.0212	5		8	107.122	10:45.2137	Honda	A	115	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
8	5	Pato O'Ward	1:00.1193	0.4318	0.0981	7	7	1:00.1193	4		6	106.947	9:18.7188	Chevy	A	256	Arrow McLaren SP
9	06	Helio Castroneves	1:00.2712	0.5837	0.1519	8	8	1:00.2712	5		10	106.678	10:49.1423	Honda	A	160	Meyer Shank Racing
10	51	Takuma Sato	1:00.5324	0.8449	0.2612	7	7	1:00.5324	4		7	106.217	10:05.0382	Honda	A	149	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
11	48	Jimmie Johnson	1:00.9817	1.2942	0.4493	8	8	1:00.9817	5		11	105.435	10:33.4263	Honda	A	99	Chip Ganassi Racing
12	4	Dalton Kellett	No Time	---	---	--	---	--.---	0		12	---		Chevy	P	70	AJ Foyt Enterprises