IndyCar’s Saturday morning practice session around the streets of Toronto was eventful, and it was Colton Herta who was able to put in the fastest time of the session.
The Californian almost broke the sub-minute barrier, but ended up lapping just above the mark with a time of 1:00.0471.
Marcus Ericsson was the second fastest driver, followed by Will Power in third. A common theme among the front runners is that their car rolled off the hauler fast, and only minor adjustments have been needed.
The series’ rookies had a good showing in the second practice, with Christian Lundgaard and David Malukas both putting in times good enough to place them in the top 10.
The session was delayed by 30 minutes due to track repair from crashes in the earlier support series running, and the expensive mistakes continued right into IndyCar’s running.
Alex Palou was one of a few drivers to touch the wall during the 45-minute session, and was only able to complete seven laps before he had to bring his car into the garage area.
Takuma Sato completed a few more laps, but also ended up colliding with the barrier near the end of the morning session. His Dale Coyne Racing crew will be busy to repair damage to the #51 in the two hours available before qualifying.
Josef Newgarden had different sort of issues, and was not able to even turn a lap during the session. Oil pressure issues were the reason for his troubles, and his Team Penske crew will also be busy for the next couple hours swapping out a new engine for the two-time champion.
Today’s qualifying session is a typical knockout Fast 6 format, meaning drivers will need to put in multiple fast laps on the challenging course in order to claim pole for Sunday’s race. Qualifying begins at 2:00 PM Eastern Time.
