The Dutch ace, who will start only 20th after struggling throughout practice and qualifying, this morning lapped the course in 59.8987sec on a set of Firestone’s softer alternate tires.
That was enough to see him shade Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport-Honda, who was second fastest and the only other driver to duck under the 60sec barrier.
Alex Palou, around whom so much controversy and speculation has swirled this week, and who has endured a torrid couple of days in practice and qualifying for his first race in Toronto, was able to edge his Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda teammate Scott Dixon for third fastest spot, but he will start the race from 22nd on the grid, whereas Dixon will start from the front row.
Championship leader Marcus Ericsson made it three Ganassi cars in the top six, separated from his teammates by Josef Newgarden.
Pole-sitter Colton Herta stalled as he tried to leave from his difficult pitbox and later caused a red flag when he skated into the run-off at Turn 3 and stalled.
Graham Rahal, who had the pace to reach the Firestone Fast Six but was one of those drivers who had his Q1 fast lap ruined by Kyle Kirkwood crashing and causing a red flag, passed the AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet driver down to Turn 3 in warm-up but on the dirtier inside line he locked up and nosed into the tire-wall. He then moved to the top of the times before another lock-up persuaded him to pit, in the belief that he had a braking issue, possibly a result of them getting overheated too easily. He still ended up seventh fastest, just ahead of another frustrated qualifier, Simon Pagenaud of Meyer Shank Racing-Honda, who is the defending race-winner here.
Will Power, another one whose qualifying hopes were ended by Kirkwood’s faux pas, outbraked himself at Turn 3, went down the run-off and then had his Team Penske-Chevrolet restarted by the AMR Safety Team. Although he wound up only 24th fastest, Peacock revealed that he was the only driver who ran 15 consecutive laps to get a read on tire behavior. He will be trying to climb from 16th on the grid.
Toronto native Devlin DeFrancesco, whose Andretti Autosport-Honda will start from his highest grid position of the season, 12th, also visited the Turn 3 run-off but was able to resume without causing a red flag.
The Honda Indy Toronto begins at 3.30pm local (Eastern) time, and is being broadcast only via live streaming in the U.S. and Canada.
