Herta, Honda Pace First Practice at Toronto’s Exhibition Place – Motorsports Tribune

By INDYCAR

TORONTO – Five Honda-powered drivers topped the overall time sheet in Friday’s first practice for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto at Exhibition Place, although it likely doesn’t reflect the competitiveness of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES field at the final street race of the season.

The final minutes of Friday’s practice saw two drivers – Alexander Rossi and rookie Linus Lundqvist – hit tire barriers on the 11-turn, 1.786-mile temporary street circuit, reducing the amount of time left for half of the field to complete a final timed lap.

Rossi was seen and released from INDYCAR Medical Unit, but the incident resulted in a broken right thumb, knocking the 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner out of the weekend’s race.

Andretti Global w/Curb-Agajanian driver Colton Herta finished with the day’s fastest lap at 1 minute, 1.0399 seconds, but he knows others will be coming for the top spot the rest of the weekend.

“Overall, the car was really nice,” said Herta, who has a pair of top-three finishes on street circuits this season and won the pole for last month’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear. “(It) feels like the same car that we brought last two years, which we’ve had podium results. And so hopefully that bodes well for us.”

Herta finished third in last year’s race and was second in 2022.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist (No. 60 AutoNation/SiriusXM Honda) had Friday’s second-quickest time at 1:01.3323 and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong (No. 11 Ridgeline Lubricants Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) was third at 1:01.7791.

Rounding out the top five was Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon (No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) at 1:01.8717 and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal (No. 15 United Rentals Honda) at 1:02.0162.

AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci (No. 14 AJ FOYT RACING/SEXTON PROPERTIES Chevrolet) had the day’s fastest lap by a Chevrolet driver at 1:02.0519.

Qualifying for the NTT P1 Award is Saturday at 2:45 p.m. ET, and recent history suggests it will be important for drivers to perform well in the session. The past four Toronto race winners have started on the front row — two from the pole, two from the No. 2 starting position. This race is the last of four on street circuits this season. Dixon has won the past two.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard (No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda) won last year’s Toronto race from the…