IndyCar Toronto: Herta beats Dixon to pole as Power, Palou, Rahal miss out

In the pole position shootout between those in the fast six, Alexander Rossi set the early marker to beat of 59.6090s, until Newgarden scorched around in 59.5257s despite grazing the wall.

That would have looked good enough for pole, especially after David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing came within 0.0287s, but Herta found a remarkable quarter second on used soft tyres to deliver 59.2698s.

Dixon, seeking his first road course pole since 2016, fell a mere 0.0894s short, demoting Newgarden and Rossi down to the second row and Malukas to fifth.

Scott McLaughlin, who has never competed at the Toronto street track, ended up sixth in the final stage of qualifying.

But the drama cranked up in the second group of Q1, when Power, Palou and Rahal all dropped out early.

Andretti Autosport’s rookie Devlin DeFrancesco, in front of his home crowd, was sent out on red tyres from the start of the session and delivered a 60.1543s but then he caused a yellow flag at Turn 3.

However, he got going again under his own power but almost simultaneously, Alex Palou ground to a halt, and by the time the track was cleared there was only enough time for IndyCar to allow drivers just one last crack at a flying lap.

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Photo by: Perry Nelson / Motorsport Images

Herta moved up to the top of the charts ahead of DeFrancesco, with Josef Newgarden third, ahead of Romain Grosjean, Felix Rosenqvist and Christian Lundgaard.

Kyle Kirkwood smacked a wall at Turn 6 and the car spun into Turn 8, which brought out a red.

The big losers from that stoppage were Lundgaard’s team-mate Rahal, who couldn’t advance despite a strong weekend for the squad, but even unluckier was Will Power, who was over three-tenths up on Herta but had to