Colton Herta topped the timing sheets of an event-packed FP1 at the Grand Prix of Toronto on Friday, in another outing for IndyCar’s new split practice format that was cut short by not one but two red flags.
Andretti’s Herta topped the timing sheets of the regular 45-minute session, he set an impressive 1.01.89s on the primary Firestone tire and went on to top the combined results of the two 10-minute sessions with a 1.01.040s on the faster alternate compound, despite brushing the wall in the closing stages.
Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist took 2nd, three-tenths adrift of Herta, also on the alternate tires. Chip Ganassi duo Marcus Armstrong and Scott Dixon finished third and fourth respectively ahead of Graham Rahal, who struggled to wrestle his number 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan around Toronto’s narrow streets.
Rahal locked up heavily into turn eight in the final runs and spent his 10-minute session berating his “garbage” rear-end stability.
Santino Ferrucci put his A.J. Foyt sixth, setting his best lap on alternates in group one of the 10-minute runs ahead of Championship leader Alex Palou, whose only representative time was a 1.02.080s set in the first 45.
Alexander Rossi’s time in the first session was good enough for seventh, the departing McLaren driver colliding with the barriers in his 10-minute slot to bring out the red flag.
Worryingly, Rossi appeared injured when he left his car, absorbing a massive impact through his wrist when his car hit the wall.
Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden rounded out the top 10, however both were denied the chance to set representative times in the final session.
Chip Ganassi’s Linus Lundqvist found himself parked in the same spot as Rossi inside five minutes, the same corner catching him out and drawing another red flag, crucially this time not stopping the clock.
Last year’s winner Christian Lundgaard finished ahead of Kyle Kirkwood and Rinus Veekay, and Nolan Siegel, who finished ahead of Iowa winner Will Power and McLaren team-mate Pato O’Ward, denied running in Group 1 because of an issue.
Team Penske’s Power spun his Verizon Chevy coming out of Turn 9 with 15 minutes left on the clock of the main session but got his car running under its own steam thanks to Indy’s new hybrid power system and continued running, ending the session 15th.
Agustin Canapino was the first Juncos Hollinger home in 17th, he spun in the same spot as Power a lap later and was fortunate not to be collected by Kyffin Simpson.
In both instances, the new hybrid unit paid dividends on Toronto’s narrow streets, mitigating the need for a red flag and saving valuable running time.
Hunter McElrea became the ninth driver to start for Dale Coyne Racing this season and topped the timings in group 2 as a result of the untimely red flag, a time only good enough for 18th in the combined standings. He beat out Meyer Shank’s David Malukas and the aforementioned Simpson, both of whom were also denied the chance to set a representative time.
Ed Carpenter’s Christian Rasmussen finished 21st ahead of Linus Lundqvist, who brought the final red flag with a carbon copy incident of Rossi’s crash a few moments earlier.
Rasmussen’s team-mate Romain Grosjean pipped 29-year-old Brit Toby Sowery, who got a second outing in Dale Coyne’s number 51 machine, after a valiant showing in Iowa last weekend.
Sting Ray Robb sits 25 just one week after his terrifying accident at Iowa, ahead of Marcus Ericsson and Pietro Fittipaldi. With 20 minutes in the books, Marcus Ericsson was forced to limp back to the pits as black smoke poured out of the back of his number 28 Andretti machine, the Swede reporting over the radio “I blew up the engine”.
With the disjointed running and a final 10-minute session cut short, almost half the grid was denied a chance to set representative times on the softer rubber, placing all the more emphasis on Saturday’s session.
