Friday practice report at Indy Toronto
- Charlotte Mui
- Jul 19
- 3 min read
Written by Charlotte Mui
Kyle Kirkwood topped the timesheets in the first practice session at the Honda Indy, followed by Scott McLaughlin and Alex Palou. Having won the last two street races, Kirkwood looked poised to carry that momentum over to the streets of Toronto.
Earlier in the day, Scott Dixon was handed a six-place grid penalty for surpassing the number of approved engines within a season.
The session began at 3 pm local time, with Alexander Rossi leading the field out onto Princes’ Boulevard. Deemed “the bumpiest track of the year,” the Toronto street circuit presented immediate challenges for the teams as they searched for the optimal set-up ahead of Sunday’s race.
The track immediately proved very slippery; drivers up and down the grid were frequently drifting wide and grazing the walls. The concrete patches at Turn 1 and Turn 3 were particularly tricky, as the surface change provided the drivers with little to no grip in those areas.
Christian Lundgaard, winner of the race in 2023, hit the wall outside the final corner in the early stages of practice but suffered no damage.
With 15 minutes to go in full-field practice, Will Power topped the times with a 1:01.905, followed closely behind by Colton Herta and Josef Newgarden. Pato O’Ward, after going off at Turn 8, recovered to post a 1:02.256.
Turn 8 continued to be a source of trouble. Scott McLaughlin ran wide there shortly after, followed in quick succession by both Santino Ferucci and O’Ward (again). Colton Herta, last year’s winner, also made an appearance at the same run-off later that session.
An unusual moment came in the closing stages of the session when a blue pool noodle found its way on the race track and was picked up by home hero Devlin DeFrancesco’s car. This bizarre incident momentarily interrupted running but was quickly resolved.
Power, Herta and Newgarden remained the top three at the end of the full-field practice session.
Lundgaard set the pace in Group 1 of the split practice session with a 1:02.643, followed by Dixon and Power.
Several drivers switched to the soft tyres, but their lap times did not appear to be quicker than those on the hard tyres, as one would expect.
Colton Herta was having an especially difficult time on the softs, going off again at Turn 8, and ultimately failing to set a fast lap; his time on track was a stark contrast to last year, where he topped the sheets in every single session.
Power finished quickest with a 1:01.853, followed by Lundgaard just over a tenth behind. Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the top three.
Lap times improved in Group 2 as the track began to rubber in. The fastest four lap times of the day came from this session.
Palou, seeking his first victory in Toronto and his eighth of the season, went third quickest overall with a 1:01.599. Having already claimed seven wins this season, the reigning champion is looking to continue his dominant streak and is edging closer to breaking the single-season win record.
Kirkwood and McLaughlin, however, went quicker still, with a 1:01.205 and a 1:01.341 respectively. It is looking likely that the fight for pole will be between Kirkwood and Palou, the only drivers to win on street circuits this season and the only multiple-race winners so far.
Having clocked in some valuable laps, drivers and teams will return to their garages and fine-tune setups for Toronto’s slippery and bumpy street surface. Practice will resume at 10:30 am tomorrow.
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