After turning the fastest lap in both practices, Colton Herta also topped qualifying for Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto.
The Andretti Global star earned his 14th career pole position and third this season with a 59.5431-second lap around the 11-turn, 1.786-mile street circuit in his No. 26 Dallara-Honda.
“Hopefully we stay the same (Sunday),” Herta told NBC Sports’ Dillon Welch. “This thing has been a rocket ship all weekend. Really has been the past few races, just luck hasn’t turned our way for a win yet. Hoping it’s here (Sunday). We’ve been very quick. We’ve always had good results there, hope to transfer that tomorrow.”
QUALIFYING RESULTS: Click here for Toronto qualifying speeds | Round 1, Group 1 | Round 1, Group 2 | Round 2 l Round 3
Teammate Kyle Kirkwood qualified second to give Andretti a front-row lockout.
“Colton has been quickest all weekend long, so I’m happy to back him up,” Kirkwood told NBC Sports’ Charlie Kimball.
Felix Rosenqvist qualified third, followed by Scott McLaughlin, Romain Grosjean and David Malukas.
Agustin Canapino made the second round of qualifying on a road or street course for the first time in his two-year IndyCar career as several notables were eliminated early.
The biggest surprise was points leader Alex Palou, who will start 18th after having his two fastest laps nullified because of a penalty for qualifying interference. Race stewards ruled that Palou impeded Pato O’Ward, who qualified 14th after also failing to advance from the first round of qualifying.
O’Ward expressed his displeasure with the situation with a social media post.
“It’s been a tough weekend,” O’Ward said in a team release. “Obviously, qualifying was really frustrating with cars getting in the way right in the peak of the window of the tires to be able to transfer. We were less than a tenth and a half (of a second) to transfer, so I think we would have been OK without those implications.
“It is frustrating, knowing that we could have started further up, but we will be rolling off P14. Historically, this hasn’t been one of our best tracks. It will be a tough one, but we will give it our best.”
It was an eventful day for O’Ward and his Arrow McLaren team.
Theo Pourchaire qualified 26th in the No. 7 Dallara-Chevrolet after flying overnight from Nice, France, to Toronto, Canada, as a last-minute substitution for Alexander Rossi, who broke his thumb Friday in a practice crash.
Pourchaire was fired from the No. 6 ride last month by Arrow McLaren, which elected to put Nolan Siegel in the seat for the rest of the season, but he was summoned again from vacation by the team in the wake of Rossi’s injury.
“I was obviously not expecting to be here, so I am dealing with a good amount of jet lag,” Pourchaire said in a team release. “It was a bit of a stressful situation to get here, but we made it and I think we did OK. The No. 7 Ryde Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was good, and I adapted quickly.
“We only did nine laps, and I worked to try to learn the track the first time out with the new hybrid system as well. I think we can be confident for tomorrow because the package looks pretty strong. It is not going to be easy, but I think we can grab some positions and complete every lap. I want to get this car as close to the front as I can for Alex.”
Here’s the IndyCar starting lineup based off qualifying results for Sunday’s Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto on the 11-turn, 1.786-mile street course around Toronto’s Exhibition Place (with qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, engine, time and speed):
ROW 1
1. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 59.5431 seconds (107.982 mph)
2. (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 59.6735 (107.746)
ROW 2
3. (60) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 59.8252 (107.473)
4. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 59.9082 (107.324)
ROW 3
5. (77) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 01:00.0012 (107.158)
6. (66) David Malukas, Honda, 01:00.2109 (106.785)
ROW 4
7. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 59.8796 (107.375)
8. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 01:00.0323 (107.102)
ROW 5
9. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 01:00.1310 (106.927)
10. (78) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 01:00.2873 (106.649)
ROW 6
11. (28) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 01:00.3364 (106.563)
12. (20) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 01:00.4336 (106.391)
ROW 7
13. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 01:00.5732 (106.146)
14. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 01:00.6435 (106.023)
ROW 8
15. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 01:00.7389 (105.856)
16. (45) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 01:00.7510 (105.835)
ROW 9
17. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 01:01.0072 (105.391)
18. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 01:00.8337 (105.691)
ROW 10
19. (6) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 01:01.2409 (104.989)
20. (4) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 01:00.9502 (105.489)
ROW 11
21. (51) Toby Sowery, Honda, 01:01.3367 (104.825)
22. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 01:01.0846 (105.257)
ROW 12
23. (30) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 01:01.3791 (104.752)
24. (8) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 01:01.2099 (105.042)
ROW 13
25. (18) Hunter McElrea, Honda, No Time (No Speed)
26. (7) Theo Pourchaire, Chevrolet, 01:01.6071 (104.365)
ROW 14
27. (41) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 01:01.7355 (104.148)