Scott McLaughlin will start tomorrow’s Honda Indy Toronto off the front row, having qualified second in tricky conditions at the Exhibition Place Street Course this morning. Scott Dixon will start the race seventh, while Marcus Armstrong lines up from tenth.
Christian Lundgaard will start the race off pole, setting a time of 1:04.1567 late in the Fast Six to top McLaughlin by 0.3223 seconds. A spin midway through the final session had put McLaughlin under pressure. However, the Kiwi was able to keep his car running and set a 1:04.4790 on his final run to provisionally hold pole until Lundgaard’s time came in after the chequered flag.
On rejoining from his spin, the Kiwi struggled to gain traction and appeared to impede Marcus Ericsson potentially. Officials would clear him of any wrongdoing after the session and let him keep his position.
Patricio O’Ward and Ericsson lock out the second row, while Felix Rosenqvist and Will Power round out the top six.
All three Kiwis had progressed from Group stage qualifying, with Dixon and McLaughlin advancing to the final 12 from fifth and sixth in Group 1, respectively, as heavy rain began to fall in the last minute, limiting the effectiveness of the final flyers.
Championship leader Alex Palou was one of those caught out, managing only the eighth quickest time on his earlier run, meaning he’ll start the race on the eighth row, in 15th.
An extremely wet track greeted Group 2’s competitors, with several incidents seeing the like of Colton Herta and Romain Grosjean trigger yellows by overshooting corners, while Graham Rahal spun at Turn 6 and damaged his nose cone and Alexander Rossi got stranded in the Turn 1 runoff.
Armstrong would progress to the Fast 12 with the sixth-best time in the group, pipping Herta by just 0.02 seconds. Tom Blomqvist would qualify tenth in the group in his IndyCar debut, while Grosjean recovered from his off to top the session.
The track dried out somewhat before the Fast 12; however, it still required wet tyres for the entire session.
McLaughlin was the sole Kiwi to finish in the top six, while Scott Dixon was knocked out by O’Ward, who set the fastest time of the run when completing his final lap after the chequered flag.
Armstrong could only manage 10th fastest and will start tomorrow’s race next to Grosjean.
Tomorrow’s Honda Indy Toronto begins at 6.00 am and will be shown live on Sky Sport.
Header Image Source: Scott McLaughlin (Facebook)
