Toronto IndyCar: Pagenaud takes pole, rivals spin and struggle

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