After Friday\u2019s practice session,\u00a0Kyle Kirkwood<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>\n Joining Kirkwood at the top of the timing chart were 2 of his Andretti Autosports teammates, first Romain Grosjean<\/strong>\u00a0in his No. 28 Honda (1:00.8575 seconds), who was just 0.05 seconds behind Kirkwood, next\u00a0Colton Herta,<\/strong>\u00a0who was last year\u2019s 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.\u00a0 The quickest Chevrolet driver on Friday was Arrow McLaren\u2019s\u00a0Felix Rosenqvist<\/strong>\u00a0in his No. 6 Chevrolet (1:00.8607 seconds), which was good enough for P3. Rounding out of the top 5 was Penske\u2019s\u00a0Scott McLaughlin<\/strong>\u00a0in his No. 3 Chevrolet with a lap of (01:00.9700 seconds).<\/p>\n When asked on what he\u2019s learning on the new surface, Rosenqvist responded, \u201d Yeah, pretty different experience this year. Seems like there\u2019s 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\u2019t seem to happen.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s been to get back here.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As reported earlier in the week,\u00a0Simon Pagenaud<\/strong>, who was not cleared to compete this weekend in Toronto<\/a> due to his crash at Mid-Ohio a few weeks ago, his substitute driver\u00a0Tom Blomqvist<\/strong>\u00a0from Meyer Shank Racing\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n When asked about how quickly he is learning the streets of Toronto, Blomqvist said \u201d I\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n Yeah, lucky I\u2019ve got a night\u2019s sleep to hopefully digest and come back better like I know what I\u2019m doing tomorrow because it\u2019s difficult to jump in like this. I\u2019ve only driven the car once; it was a while ago. I don\u2019t know the track either, which obviously doesn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n But the biggest thing is just feeling the car and then knowing what you\u2019ve got underneath you. At the moment it still feels a little foreign, just the seat position, your steer \u2014 everything, all the small stuff.<\/p>\n But at the end of the day it\u2019s a race car, and I need to try and figure it out. Let\u2019s see, hopefully I come back tomorrow and I\u2019m in a bit better shape.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n On Saturday, his Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta, <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n \u201cIt kept getting faster through the session,\u201d Herta said. \u201cMy 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what most of the changes overnight included, trying to strap down that rear end a little more without creating that much more understeer. We\u2019re still missing a little bit there, and we\u2019ll need a little more front grip for the (alternate) tires, but overall, good session.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 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.<\/p>\n Following both Andretti Autosports teammates was, 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner and CGR driver Marcus Ericsson<\/strong> 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<\/strong><\/a> 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<\/strong> in his No. 5 with a quick lap of 1:00.7054 seconds putting him P5.<\/p>\nPagenaud sidelined, Blomqvist in<\/h3>\n
Herta tops second practice<\/h3>\n