Herta breaks below the minute barrier to claim Toronto pole

Herta put in his fast lap on used red tires. Photo: Kevin Dejewski

Colton Herta was unbeatable on the streets of Toronto for Saturday’s qualifying session, with the Californian taming the tricky track better than all his competitors.

His lap came together right as time expired, and he was able to complete a lap of the short 1.79-mile course in just 59.2698 seconds.  Qualifying was the first time any driver had broken the minute barrier all weekend, showing how much the track has evolved over the weekend.

Herta becomes the first driver to repeat as pole winner this season, breaking a streak that lasted through the first nine races of the season.

Scott Dixon was just behind Herta on the road and nearly snatched pole away, but ended up finishing less than a tenth of a second slower.  Both Dixon and Herta set their fastest times on used red tires, which provides interesting strategy implications for the race on Sunday.

Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi earned the two spots on the second row, and both looked like they could be quick enough to take pole at one point.

Starting in fifth will be David Malukas, who is the highest-places rookie in the field.  The young driver was impressive throughout, and has a fantastic starting position to show for his effort.

Scott McLaughlin will line up alongside on the third row, but the Kiwi is fast on street circuits and has momentum from his win last time out in Mid-Ohio.

There was some confusion during the first round, when Devlin DeFrancesco and Alex Palou had issues at the same time.  DeFrancesco stuffed his car into the tire barriers, and was getting going again when Palou suffered engine trouble.

The ensuing red flag was technically thrown for Palou, meaning he lost his fast laps and was not allowed to advance.  That allowed DeFrancesco to advance to the second round without penalty, and he was able to earn his best IndyCar start of 12th.

There were a slew of other rookies that advanced to the Top 12 as well, with Callum Ilott and Christian Lundgaard qualifying 7th and 10 respectively.  That doesn’t even include the aforementioned Malukas.

The Dale Coyne Racing crew was just able to get Takuma Sato’s car ready for qualifying, with the last steps being completed as the car was being wheeled to pit road.

Dalton Kellett was the only driver not to set a time during the session, as his AJ Foyt team could not fix a fuel pressure issue in time to get him out on track. The rules of split first round of qualifying mean that he will not quite start in the final position on account of him being in the first qualifying group.

Sunday’s race is 85 laps long, and they will go by quickly on account of the short lap times.  The green flag flies at 3:00 PM Eastern Time.

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