Toronto IndyCar: Pagenaud takes pole, rivals spin and struggle
Reigning Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud did exactly as he threatened to do over the past two practice sessions, nailing pole position for Team Penske-Chevrolet, as rivals Scott Dixon, Alexander Rossi and Josef Newgarden spun and/or brushed walls.
Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske Chevrolet
Geoffrey M. Miller / Motorsport Images
Pagenaud nailed a 58.4293sec lap – an average of 110.041mph around the 1.786-mile street course to beat Dixon by 0.1655sec as Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s reigning champion and defending Toronto winner spun at the start of what would have been his final flyer.
Dixon’s teammate, rookie Felix Rosenqvist, was a mere 0.0845sec short of nailing P2, Rossi was furious with himself for brushing a wall at Turn 6 on his final run and finishing the session only fourth.
He nonetheless starts ahead of championship leader Josef Newgarden who fell 0.88sec short of his Penske teammate Pagenaud before smacking the wall out of the exit of Turn 11 and bending a right-rear toelink. He will start on the third row beside the session’s biggest positive surprise, Ed Jones in the Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy.
Marco Andretti produced his best qualifying lap of the year to grab seventh and outqualify two-time Toronto winner Sebastien Bourdais in the Dale Coyne Racing-Honda with Vasser-Sullivan, both Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Hondas and his teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay – another former Toronto winner.
The disappointment for the local crowd was that James Hinchcliffe was consigned to the seventh row of the grid having failed by 0.04sec to make the top six in Q1 Group 2, although it was impressive that he managed to outpace Colton Herta’s Harding Steinbrenner-Honda.
But the most surprising elimination at Q1 stage was 56-time IndyCar polesitter Will Power who had taken over Penske teammate Pagenaud’s softer setup for the bumpy track but was 0.8sec off Rosenqvist’s pacesetting time in that session. He reported to NBC Sports Network that he had also suffered gearshift issues, but that the main problem was setup. It’s the first time Power has missed the top dozen on a road/street course in over four years.
Marcus Ericsson in the second Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda, who had also suffered a nightmarish Friday morning session, slapped the wall while still on primary tires, sending him crabbing down the straight and out of contention.
Q3 Firestone Fast Six
Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Simon Pagenaud
|
Team Penske | 4 | 58.4293 | 110.041 | ||
2 |
Scott Dixon
|
Chip Ganassi Racing | 4 | 58.5948 | 0.1655 | 0.1655 | 109.730 |
3 |
Felix Rosenqvist
|
Chip Ganassi Racing | 3 | 58.6793 | 0.2500 | 0.0845 | 109.572 |
4 |
Alexander Rossi
|
Andretti Autosport | 5 | 58.9215 | 0.4922 | 0.2422 | 109.121 |
5 |
Josef Newgarden
|
Team Penske | 4 | 59.3103 | 0.8810 | 0.3888 | 108.406 |
6 |
Ed Jones
|
Ed Carpenter Racing | 3 | 59.5353 | 1.1060 | 0.2250 | 107.996 |
View full results |
Q2
Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Josef Newgarden
|
Team Penske | 8 | 58.4129 | 110.072 | ||
2 |
Felix Rosenqvist
|
Chip Ganassi Racing | 8 | 58.4685 | 0.0556 | 0.0556 | 109.967 |
3 |
Scott Dixon
|
Chip Ganassi Racing | 8 | 58.5061 | 0.0932 | 0.0376 | 109.896 |
4 |
Ed Jones
|
Ed Carpenter Racing | 8 | 58.5360 | 0.1231 | 0.0299 | 109.840 |
5 |
Simon Pagenaud
|
Team Penske | 8 | 58.5896 | 0.1767 | 0.0536 | 109.740 |
6 |
Alexander Rossi
|
Andretti Autosport | 7 | 58.6305 | 0.2176 | 0.0409 | 109.663 |
7 |
Marco Andretti
|
Andretti Autosport | 7 | 58.7663 | 0.3534 | 0.1358 | 109.410 |
8 |
Sébastien Bourdais
|
Dale Coyne Racing | 7 | 58.7781 | 0.3652 | 0.0118 | 109.388 |
9 |
Spencer Pigot
|
Ed Carpenter Racing | 7 | 58.8221 | 0.4092 | 0.0440 | 109.306 |
10 |
Takuma Sato
|
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 8 | 58.9110 | 0.4981 | 0.0889 | 109.141 |
11 |
Ryan Hunter-Reay
|
Andretti Autosport | 5 | 59.0444 | 0.6315 | 0.1334 | 108.894 |
12 |
Graham Rahal
|
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 8 | 59.0985 | 0.6856 | 0.0541 | 108.795 |
View full results |
Q1 Group 2
Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Ed Jones
|
Ed Carpenter Racing | 8 | 58.6011 | 109.718 | ||
2 |
Simon Pagenaud
|
Team Penske | 8 | 58.7174 | 0.1163 | 0.1163 | 109.501 |
3 |
Alexander Rossi
|
Andretti Autosport | 7 | 58.7507 | 0.1496 | 0.0333 | 109.439 |
4 |
Ryan Hunter-Reay
|
Andretti Autosport | 7 | 58.7543 | 0.1532 | 0.0036 | 109.432 |
5 |
Josef Newgarden
|
Team Penske | 8 | 58.8200 | 0.2189 | 0.0657 | 109.310 |
6 |
Scott Dixon
|
Chip Ganassi Racing | 8 | 58.8897 | 0.2886 | 0.0697 | 109.180 |
7 |
James Hinchcliffe
|
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 8 | 58.9293 | 0.3282 | 0.0396 | 109.107 |
8 |
Colton Herta
|
Harding Racing | 8 | 59.0549 | 0.4538 | 0.1256 | 108.875 |
9 |
Zach Veach
|
Andretti Autosport | 6 | 59.2890 | 0.6879 | 0.2341 | 108.445 |
10 |
Marcus Ericsson
|
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 4 | 59.6299 | 1.0288 | 0.3409 | 107.825 |
11 |
Tony Kanaan
|
A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 7 | 59.7317 | 1.1306 | 0.1018 | 107.641 |
View full results |
Q1 Group 1
Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Felix Rosenqvist
|
Chip Ganassi Racing | 8 | 58.7306 | 109.476 | ||
2 |
Sébastien Bourdais
|
Dale Coyne Racing | 8 | 59.0743 | 0.3437 | 0.3437 | 108.839 |
3 |
Graham Rahal
|
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 8 | 59.1497 | 0.4191 | 0.0754 | 108.700 |
4 |
Spencer Pigot
|
Ed Carpenter Racing | 8 | 59.2448 | 0.5142 | 0.0951 | 108.526 |
5 |
Takuma Sato
|
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 8 | 59.2877 | 0.5571 | 0.0429 | 108.447 |
6 |
Marco Andretti
|
Andretti Autosport | 7 | 59.4301 | 0.6995 | 0.1424 | 108.188 |
7 |
Max Chilton
|
Carlin | 7 | 59.4811 | 0.7505 | 0.0510 | 108.095 |
8 |
Will Power
|
Team Penske | 8 | 59.5508 | 0.8202 | 0.0697 | 107.968 |
9 |
Santino Ferrucci
|
Dale Coyne Racing | 7 | 59.9761 | 1.2455 | 0.4253 | 107.203 |
10 |
Matheus Leist
|
A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 3 | 1'00.1853 | 1.4547 | 0.2092 | 106.830 |
11 |
Sage Karam
|
Carlin | 8 | 1'01.1134 | 2.3828 | 0.9281 | 105.208 |
View full results |
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