Andretti Autosport seems to have put the drama from Mid-Ohio behind them as Colton Herta takes the pole for the Honda Indy Toronto, the first repeat polesitter this season.
After starting the day at the top of the second practice session, and topping his group in round one of qualifying, Herta swiped the top spot from Josef Newgarden right at the end of the Fast Six session.
“That was an intense session,” Herta said. “We hadn’t really found that time until right at the end, I was really happy with that lap.”
Alongside him will be three-time winner at Toronto Scott Dixon, who also managed to jump Newgarden at the end of the session but didn’t have enough to surpass Herta. After leading most of the final session, Newgarden’s slide ends in the third position, benefitted by a new engine changed after second practice.
Alexander Rossi will start fourth, showing a lot of pace so far this weekend, while rookie David Malukas dazzled once again in qualifying, with a fifth place start marking his second trip to the Fast Six this year. Rounding out the session was Scott McLaughlin, who will start sixth.
Some of the top points contenders find themselves buried in the field, including the likes of Alex Palou, Will Power, and more.
In the first round of qualifying, Pato O’Ward simply did not have the pace to advance to the next round, finishing eighth in his group. He will start fifteenth.
Group two proved to be even more chaotic, as Devlin DeFrancesco locked up going into turn three and into the tyre barrier. At the same time, Palou’s engine gave out, coming to a halt on the backstretch. The red flag was thrown with four and a half minutes left, but officially was thrown for Palou, denying him the chance to advance to the Fast Twelve, starting twenty-second.
That wasn’t the last red flag of the session, however, as Kyle Kirkwood made contact with the wall at the very end of the session and tried to hold onto the car and finish the lap, but spun coming across the timing line. The timing of this red flag crushed Power’s run, who was three tenths of a second up on the time to advance. He will start sixteenth.
Since the earlier penalty wasn’t applied to DeFrancesco, the rookie was able to advance to his first Fast Twelve. Unfortunately in that session, he was penalized for impeding on Herta, and will start twelfth, which is still a career-best for him.
Two more rookies joined Malukas in the top ten, Callum Ilott and Christian Lundgaard, who will start seventh and tenth respectively. Championship leader Marcus Ericsson will start the race in ninth.
With the grid now set, we look ahead to the Honda Indy Toronto, which takes place Sunday, 17 July at 1200 PST / 1500 EST / 1900 GMT.
Honda Indy Toronto – Starting Order
| RANK | CAR NO. | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME |
| 1 | 26 | Colton Herta | USA | Andretti Autosport | 59.2698 |
| 2 | 9 | Scott Dixon | NZL | Chip Ganassi Racing | 59.3592 |
| 3 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | USA | Team Penske | 59.5257 |
| 4 | 27 | Alexander Rossi | USA | Andretti Autosport | 59.5544 |
| 5 | 18 | David Malukas (R) | USA | Dale Coyne Racing w/ HMD Motorsports | 59.614 |
| 6 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | NZL | Team Penske | 59.9558 |
| 7 | 77 | Callum Ilott (R) | GBR | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 59.6352 |
| 8 | 7 | Felix Rosenqvist | SWE | Arrow McLaren SP | 59.663 |
| 9 | 8 | Marcus Ericsson | SWE | Chip Ganassi Racing | 59.8527 |
| 10 | 30 | Christian Lundgaard (R) | DEN | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 59.9151 |
| 11 | 28 | Romain Grosjean | FRA | Andretti Autosport | 1:00.0819 |
| 12 | 29 | Devlin DeFrancesco | CAN | Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport | 1:14.8882 |
| 13 | 45 | Jack Harvey | GBR | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 1:00.0212 |
| 14 | 15 | Graham Rahal | USA | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 1:00.6805 |
| 15 | 5 | Patricio O’Ward | MEX | Arrow McLaren SP | 1:00.1193 |
| 16 | 12 | Will Power | AUS | Team Penske | 1:00.7974 |
| 17 | 06 | Helio Castroneves | BRA | Meyer Shank Racing | 1:00.2712 |
| 18 | 60 | Simon Pagenaud | FRA | Meyer Shank Racing | 1:00.7974 |
| 19 | 51 | Takuma Sato | JPN | Dale Coyne Racing | 1:00.5324 |
| 20 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | NED | Ed Carpenter Racing | 1:01.0870 |
| 21 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | USA | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:00.9817 |
| 22 | 10 | Alex Palou | ESP | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:03.0514 |
| 23 | 4 | Dalton Kellett | CAN | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | NO TIME |
| 24 | 14 | Kyle Kirkwood (R) | USA | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 1:03.2511 |
| 25 | 20 | Conor Daly | USA | Ed Carpenter Racing | 1:05.2593 |