Herta Takes Second Pole Of 2022 In Toronto
Calum Gill 20:24 16/07/2022
In the week he tested a Formula 1 car for the first time with McLaren, Colton Herta became the first repeat IndyCar pole winner of the 2022 season and denied Scott Dixon his first non-oval pole since 2016 in Toronto.
Herta did an evaluation test for McLaren at Portimao but shot back for his second IndyCar visit to Toronto, where he vaulted up the order with stunning final lap to take his ninth pole position of his short IndyCar career. He had gone two tenths of a second faster than Josef Newgarden, who held the fastest time despite walking the wall at Turn 6, but he had to pit after that and Dixon used the time to leap into second less than a tenth off Herta. A resurgent Dixon congratulated his Ganassi #9 crew, which has struggled with set-up gambles and inconsistency this year especially on road courses but has been fast all weekend in Canada. Newgarden, whose day also included an engine change that cost him some practice time, held on for third ahead of Herta’s team-mate Alexander Rossi.
Rossi made it two Andretti Autosport drivers in the top six in a turnaround from a difficult and controversial Mid-Ohio race that had featured multiple team-mate crashes. Four of the five IndyCar rookies will start inside the top 12 on Sunday at a track 13 drivers haven’t been to before because of its absence during the COVID pandemic since 2019. David Malukas was the best of those. He had thrilled with his performance at Mid-Ohio, where he would have started higher than his actual eighth before being held up on his fastest lap, and followed that up by being at the sharp end throughout his first visit to Toronto for Dale Coyne with HMD. Mid-Ohio winner Scott McLaughlin was the second Penske driver in the top six and was some way off the pole by over six tenths, but will be happy to start so near the front anyway.
Though Juncos Hollinger has struggled on street circuits this season, Callum Ilott delivered some rapid pace and missed out on graduating to the Fast Six by just 0.047 seconds, starting seventh. His lap was made all the more impressive by having been done on used tyres. Felix Rosenqvist upheld Arrow McLaren SP’s honour with an eighth place start ahead of fellow Swede and Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson who starts just ahead of his 2022 qualifying average despite being disappointed by his driving on his last lap. Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Christian Lundgaard was another impressive rookie in 10th ahead of Romain Grosjean, who crashed heavily in practice two and was visibly frustrated but bounced back well considering in 11th. Devlin DeFrancesco will have his best ever IndyCar starting position on his first visit to Toronto in his native Canada after a wild session. He went fastest of anyone in the second group of the first segment of qualifying but immediately put his car in the tyres at Turn 3.
Luckily Álex Palou ground to a halt with an engine issue and brought out a red flag before DeFrancesco was penalised for impeding other competitors. Then in Q2 he went straight on at Turn 2, tried to rejoin the track but unfortunate timing meant he blocked team-mate Herta and DeFrancesco got an impeding penalty that cost him his two fastest laps and led to a 12th-place start. Will Power has the best average finish of any driver this year, but his average start is 11.2 including his worst career run with four races in a row now outside the top 15. He’ll start 16th. Foyt’s Kyle Kirkwood was on a lap which looked good enough to progress to the second phase when he hit the wall at Turn 6 and admirably tried to finish the lap with broken suspension, but spun at the last corner bringing out a yellow while Power was three tenths up and had to back up for the resulting yellow flag.
After two straight retirements while running in podium positions, Pato O’Ward’s struggles continued as he failed to get out of the first group of qualifying for Arrow McLaren SP. He’d flatspotted his only set of soft tyres in practice and kissed the wall at the last corner but still missed out by only a tenth and will start 17th. “I haven’t had the speed all weekend,” a frustrated O’Ward told Peacock TV. Simon Pagenaud was another high profile departure in the first round of qualifying, being the last winner at this track back in 2019. Now at Meyer Shank Racing he had been quick in practice but was in a messy second group and will start 18th. O’Ward’s potential team-mate next year Palou - who has been claimed by both Ganassi and McLaren for 2023 - ground to a halt with five minutes left in group qualifying as his dash went dark and he lost all power. He had to be towed back. He had also crashed, hitting the inside wall on his first visit to Toronto. He’ll start 24th.
