IndyCar completed a busy qualifying session on the streets of Toronto Saturday afternoon, with slick city roads providing a challenge up and down the field.
Just as he did during last year’s visit to Canada, Colton Herta was able to put in the quickest lap of the session to lock in pole position.
Herta lapped the 1.79-mile course in 59.8320 seconds, a full quarter of a second faster than anyone else in the field.
READ MORE: IndyCar Toronto – Full Qualifying Results
Times had been very close all throughout the order all afternoon, so having a 0.276 second advantage in the final run showed just how strong the California-native was.
Alex Palou was the second quickest, earning himself a spot alongside Herta as he continues to march towards his fourth championship.
Marcus Armstrong set the third best time, followed closely by Will Power, who was the only Chevy-powered representative in the Fast Six.
Graham Rahal earned the fifth starting position, with Kyle Kirkwood coming in sixth.
Kirkwood was very disappointed after his run, saying that his car bottomed out where it never had before, causing him to throw away what he felt was surely going to be pole run.
Louis Foster just missed the final round, qualifying in sixth in his #45 RLL Honda.
The Andretti crew was seen furiously diagnosing a brake issue on Marcus Ericsson’s #28 just before qualifying.
They got the issue sorted and he was able to advance into the second round, locking in the eighth starting position.
Scott Dixon locked up his new set of soft tires, which caused a large flat spot on his right front and hindered his run. He qualified 11th, but will start from 17th after an engine change penalty is applied.
Lining up from the back
With the overall times so close up and down the order, there were a few disappointed drivers who will be forced to start from the back half of the grid.
Nolan Siegel, who returned to the cockpit after having to sit out last weekend’s second race from Iowa, narrowly missed out on advancing into the second round.
His lap was 0.0340 seconds too slow, and he was forced to accept the 13th starting position instead of fighting in the next round.
Scott McLaughlin was also eliminated in the first round despite showing a lot of pace in the morning’s practice runs.
He blamed himself for not lining up all the corners correctly, and will start from 15th as a consequence.
Josef Newgarden will line up even further down the order, and will have to fight from 18th on the grid.
Both Ed Carpenter Racing entries and both Juncos Hollinger Racing entries struggled to put together a fast lap.
Out of the four drivers on those two teams, Conor Daly’s 21st grid slot is the highest. All will have a potentially long day ahead of them.
Drivers will return to the track for the main event on Sunday at noon eastern time, when the streets will become more narrow than ever with a full field battling for the same real estate.
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