If Andretti Autosports wasn’t rolling into Toronto with any momentum, that might be changing after the first two practice sessions.
After Friday’s practice session, Kyle Kirkwood, along with 2 other Andretti Autosport drivers, were on top of the timing charts. Kirkwood, in his No. 27 Honda, laid down a late lap with about 40 seconds left in the 1 hour and 15-minute practice session of (1:00.8075 seconds) to put him P1, which was 0.1985 seconds slower than the 1st practice session just 1 year ago.
Joining Kirkwood at the top of the timing chart were 2 of his Andretti Autosports teammates, first Romain Grosjean in his No. 28 Honda (1:00.8575 seconds), who was just 0.05 seconds behind Kirkwood, next Colton Herta, who was last year’s pole sitter and is shooting for his 3rd straight P1 award in his No. 28 Honda finished P4 with a lap of 1:00.9135. The quickest Chevrolet driver on Friday was Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist in his No. 6 Chevrolet (1:00.8607 seconds), which was good enough for P3. Rounding out of the top 5 was Penske’s Scott McLaughlin in his No. 3 Chevrolet with a lap of (01:00.9700 seconds).
When asked on what he’s learning on the new surface, Rosenqvist responded, ” Yeah, pretty different experience this year. Seems like there’s some new repaves and patches on the track. Initially the session was really slippery, and everyone was just waiting for the track to go quicker, but it didn’t seem to happen.
Then it kind of got traction and the lap times tumbled. But it was a new challenge. I would say it was the most different it’s been to get back here.
I think Turn 9, Turn 10, Turn 11 was like a complete rethink in terms of driving lines and just how we approach it, really. Some other corners that were better, I thought, like Turn 6 was less bumpy, Turn 3 was less bumpy. They improved some places, and some places are harder as a driver.
Quite challenging I thought, but good session for us. The car felt good, and I think all of us in the team were pretty up front all session.”
Pagenaud sidelined, Blomqvist in
As reported earlier in the week, Simon Pagenaud, who was not cleared to compete this weekend in Toronto due to his crash at Mid-Ohio a few weeks ago, his substitute driver Tom Blomqvist from Meyer Shank Racing’s IMSA program made his NTT IndyCar debt on Friday, completing 33 laps with his quickest lap being (01:03.7979 seconds) which put him at P26.
When asked about how quickly he is learning the streets of Toronto, Blomqvist said ” I’ll start there. Yeah, that was difficult, but as expected, I guess. To be honest, the biggest goal for me was just to survive this session, try and get as many laps as possible.
Yeah, lucky I’ve got a night’s sleep to hopefully digest and come back better like I know what I’m doing tomorrow because it’s difficult to jump in like this. I’ve only driven the car once; it was a while ago. I don’t know the track either, which obviously doesn’t help.
But the biggest thing is just feeling the car and then knowing what you’ve got underneath you. At the moment it still feels a little foreign, just the seat position, your steer — everything, all the small stuff.
But at the end of the day it’s a race car, and I need to try and figure it out. Let’s see, hopefully I come back tomorrow and I’m in a bit better shape.”
Herta tops second practice
On Saturday, his Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta, who is seeking his third straight NTT P1 Award in his No. 26 Honda found speed. When the dust settled after the second practice session, turned a quick lap of 1:00.5657 seconds, which is the quickest lap of the weekend so far in preparation for the NTT P1 Award Qualifying later on today.
“It kept getting faster through the session,” Herta said. “My fastest lap was on the second run on the first set of tires, when it was raining quite heavily. You know how it is on these street courses; the development of the track grip is so rapid. So, you really have to stay on top of that.
“That’s what most of the changes overnight included, trying to strap down that rear end a little more without creating that much more understeer. We’re still missing a little bit there, and we’ll need a little more front grip for the (alternate) tires, but overall, good session.”
Kirkwood followed up Friday’s P1 practice session with a quick lap of 1:00.5972 seconds, which placed him P2 after the second practice session this morning.
Following both Andretti Autosports teammates was, 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner and CGR driver Marcus Ericsson in his No. 8 Honda with a hot lap of 1:00.6350 seconds placing him P3 after the session. After finishing P12 after Friday’s practice session, the 2021 series champion and current points leader Alex Palou in his No. 10 Honda checked in P4 with a lap of 1:00.6802 seconds and the quickest of the bow tie drivers of the practice session was Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward in his No. 5 with a quick lap of 1:00.7054 seconds putting him P5.
Up Next: Qualifications, Saturday 2:50 PM/ET on Peacock
