Gutierrez’s drive at Toronto in doubt after shunt

The Dale Coyne Racing-Honda driver clipped the wall on the inside of the final corner of the street course during the qualifying group session, and it spat him across the track into the outside wall coming onto the pitstraight.

The #18 car made hard right-rear contact with the concrete, and caught fire before the Holmatro Safety Team arrived on the scene and doused the flames.

An IndyCar Medical release stated: “Following an incident during qualifications today for the Honda Indy Toronto, Dale Coyne Racing driver Esteban Gutierrez was evaluated by IndyCar medical director Dr. Michael Olinger after experiencing concussion-like symptoms.

“Gutierrez was treated and released but has not been cleared to drive, pending further evaluation Sunday morning.”

Following the crash, Gutierrez stated: "It was not ideal obviously, it's been a tough weekend overall. Yesterday we lost a bit of track time due to contact in Turn 1 and today it was a pretty hard hit in a high-speed corner.

"I was having some understeer and I was trying to anticipate a bit the entry of the corner, but I touched the inside wall a bit and it sent me straight into the outside wall, pretty hard. It's unfortunate and I feel really bad for the team, they have a lot of work to do."

Should Gutierrez be unable to start, Canada’s Robert Wickens is on hand, as he had been one of the drivers being considered for the #7 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports ride after Mikhail Aleshin was benched for the weekend. This ride was taken by Sebastian Saavedra.