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Herta stays a cut above and blasts to Toronto pole

Andretti Global owned last year’s Honda Indy Toronto event with the pole and victory for Colton Herta, added two more street course victories this season with Kyle Kirkwood, and showed no signs of slowing on Saturday with Herta posting the quickest lap of the weekend to secure pole in the No. 26 Honda.

“We have a great car here,” said Herta, who was on pole last month in Detroit as well. “It’s plain and simple, if you see what me, Kyle, and Marcus (Ericsson) are able to do inside the race car. I like to think it’s because we’re better than everybody else, but the cars are really just that good, and I think they make us look really good. I’m so happy to finally be back here on the pole, but need to get that first race win of the year tomorrow.”

Herta’s lap of 59.832s w as well clear of championship leader Alex Palou in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (1m00.107s) who joins him on the front row. The Honda-powered 1-2-3 was completed by the streaking Marcus Armstrong from Meyer Shank Racing (1m00.353s) who produced his best qualifying performance of the season.

Team Penske’s Will Power was fourth in the No. 12 Chevy (1m00.451s) and served as the only member of his extended squad – including the AJ Foyt Racing program – to qualify inside the Firestone Fast 12. Penske’s Scott McLaughlin and Foyt’s David Malukas were the closest in 15th and 16th, respectively.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal conjured his Fast Six form from May’s Indianapolis Grand Prix and placed the No. 15 Honda in fifth (1m00.860s) ahead of a gravely disappointed Kyle Kirkwood who was fastest in every qualifying round, but had a huge bout of oversteer at the start of his flying lap and abandoned the run, which left the No. 27 Honda sixth (1m04.530s).

“We’ve normally been struggling quite a lot here in Toronto,” said Palou, who won the opening street race of the year in St. Petersburg. “Honestly, our target was to try and start up front, try and be in the Fast Six, top 10. It’s a surprise that we’re starting on the front row. Honestly, the car was getting better each time we’re on track, so super proud of everybody’s work, super happy to be starting on the front row tomorrow, see if we can get Colton there. Colton and Kyle [have] been on another level here this weekend, so hopefully we have something for them tomorrow.”

Like Palou, Armstrong wasn’t expecting to be inside the top three.

“Honestly, the lap felt pretty average, if I’m brutally honest,” he said. “The race tomorrow is going to be a completely different story to qualifying as usual.”

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Elsewhere, Andretti’s Ericsson overcame a brake master cylinder failure discovered on the way from the paddock to pit lane and took the repaired No. 28 Honda to eighth on the grid. Dale Coyne Racing’s Rinus VeeKay, whose street course pace has been impressive all season, kept the narrative going in ninth with the No. 18 Honda.

Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, the only driver with a slight chance of catching Palou in the quest for the championship, needed the po int for pole but will start 10th in the No. 5 Chevy.

“I was hoping for a little bit more today,” he said. “I’m happy with my car on the Firestone Primary tires, so I think we’ll have a strong race car for tomorrow. The performance of the alternate tires was a bit of a surprise and inconsistent, like they’ve been all year. It’s a long race and lots can happen, so let’s see how it plays out.”

In 12th, an on-form Callum Ilott was fast but frustrated for PREMA Racing, citing a high frequency of “muppets” going off in the Turn 8 runoff and returning in front of his No. 90 Chevy at a slow rate of speed, which killed each of his attempts to set a better lap.

Of those who are expected to charge forward from deep in the pack, Armstrong’s Meyer Shank teammate Felix Rosenqvist in 17th and Penske’s Josef Newgarden in 18th form a four-car armada with the aforementioned McLaughlin in 15th and Malukas in 16th.

Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard, winner of the Toronto race for RLL in 2023, makes it a five-car train in 19th.

The opening half of IndyCar’s three-round knockout qualifying process sent 13 cars out for 10 minutes to establish the six fastest to transfer into the second round.

Kirkwood was the only to crack the one-minute mark, leading the transferring six with a 59.906s lap ahead of Power, Dixon, Ilott, Rahal, and Foster.

Those who failed to transfer were locked into their starting positions with Nolan Siegel (P13), McLaughlin (P15), Felix Rosenqvist (P17), Lundgaard (P19), Conor Daly (P21), Santino Ferrucci (P23), and Sting Ray Robb (P25).

The second half of the field featured 14 drivers and Armstrong shot to the top on the final lap with a 1m00.098s ahead of the transferring VeeKay, Palou, Ericsson, Herta, and O’Ward. Finished for the day were Kyffin Simpson (P14), Malukas (P16), Newgarden (P18), Robert Shwartzman (P20), Christian Rasmussen (P22), Alexander Rossi (P24), Devlin DeFrancesco (P26) and Jacob Abel (P27).

Firestone’s Fast 12 was its usual last-lap battle and once it was over, Kirkwood was fastest at 59.927s and had Power, Herta, Rahal, Palou and Armstrong in tow to go for pole. Fixed in seventh through 12th were Foster, Ericsson, VeeKay, O’Ward, Dixon and Ilott.

The Fast Six was all Herta as a fumble by Kirkwood ended any hope of an internecine fight for pole.

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