Through a dry-to-wet-to-dry qualifying session, Christian Lundgaard picked up his second career pole position with a lap of 64.1567 seconds during the final round of qualifying on the streets of Toronto. Lundgaard picked up his first career pole position at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in May. The Dane is attempting to pick up his third consecutive top ten finish. Lundgaard has had four previous chances for a third consecutive top ten finish, and he finished 26th (Iowa II 2022), 19th (Gateway 2022), 19th (Texas 2023) and 19th (2023 Indianapolis 500) in those events. This will be Lundgaard's 28th career start. Only two drivers have won their first race in their 28th career start: Gary Bettenhausen at Phoenix in November 1968 and Carlos Muñoz at Belle Isle in June 2015.
Despite having a spin in the final round of qualifying and seemingly impeding multiple drivers, Scott McLaughlin kept his second-place qualifying effort, 0.3223 seconds off Lundgaard, and it is McLaughlin's second front row start this season. He started second at Detroit. The New Zealander has three consecutive top ten finishes for the first time this season and for the first time since he ended the 2022 season with six top ten finishes on the spin.
Patricio O'Ward was only 0.071 seconds shy of a front row starting position, but third is O'Ward's seventh top five starting position this season. O'Ward has finished outside the top ten in four of the last five street course races. Since 2021, O'Ward has finished outside the top ten in eight of 13 street course races. O'Ward was 11th in his Toronto debut last year.
For the first time since Long Beach, Marcus Ericsson is the best Chip Ganassi Racing starter, as Ericsson finds himself fourth on the grid. Ericsson is coming off a 27th-place result at Mid-Ohio, his first non-top ten finish of the season. Ericsson has not had consecutive races outside the top ten since Long Beach and Barber Motorsports Park last season.
Felix Rosenqvist ends up starting a position behind his fellow Swede Ericsson for the second consecutive race. This time Rosenqvist is in fifth position. Rosenqvist has finished 20th and 25th in the last two races. Rosenqvist has not had three consecutive results outside the top ten since a six-race slump from the final two 2021 races through the first four races of 2022.
Will Power made it to the Fast Six for the first time this season, guaranteeing his best starting position of the season. However, all Power could do was qualify sixth. This is the fourth time in the last five seasons Power enters the tenth race of the season without a victory. Power had won one of the first nine races in ten of his first 12 full seasons in IndyCar. The Australian has never won a race from sixth starting position in his career, but he did win from seventh at Toronto in 2007.
Scott Dixon fell just over a tenth of a second short of advancing to the final round, and Dixon will start seventh. Dixon enters Toronto this weekend having not won one of the first nine races. Last year, Dixon did not win any of the first nine races and then won the tenth race of the season at Toronto. Dixon was second at Mid-Ohio. He has not had consecutive podium finishes since he was third in the 2020 St. Petersburg season finale and then was third in the 2021 season opener at Barber Motorsports Park.
Kyle Kirkwood is the top Andretti Autosport starter in eighth position, his third consecutive top ten start. This is the fourth time this season Andretti Autosport has failed to have a top five starter, but it is the first time it has happened on a street course. Kirkwood won at Toronto in three of his four Road to Indy starts. His only top five finish in IndyCar remains his Long Beach victory earlier this season.
Romain Grosjean takes ninth on the grid. Grosjean has finished outside the top ten in five consecutive races, the longest slump of his IndyCar career. Grosjean was fifth in the championship, 25 points off the lead after Barber Motorsports Park in April. He is now 12th in the championship, 110 points off the championship lead.
Marcus Armstrong qualified tenth, his second top ten start in the last three races. This is the sixth consecutive race Chip Ganassi Racing has had at least three cars start in the top ten, and Ganassi has had at least three top ten starters in nine of ten races this season. Armstrong has finished eighth in his last two street course starts and he has not finished worse than 11th on a street course in his brief IndyCar career.
Josef Newgarden ended up 11th on the grid. This is the fifth time Newgarden has started outside the top ten this season. He started outside the top ten only three times over the entire 2022 season. He has finished on the podium in the tenth race of the season in seven of the last eight seasons. Newgarden was tenth in the tenth race last year at Toronto. Newgarden won the 2015 Toronto race from 11th on the grid.
Rinus VeeKay made it to the second round of qualifying for the first time since the Indianapolis 500, and VeeKay will start 12th. It was his first second round appearance on a road/street courses since Barber Motorsports Park in April. The Dutchman has not had a top ten finish on a street course since he was sixth in the 2022 St. Petersburg season opener.
Hélio Castroneves scored his best starting position of the season in 13th, partially due to the rain that occurred late in the group one session in the first round of qualifying. Castroneves was 0.0674 seconds off advancing to the second round. The Brazilian has never won the tenth race of a season in his IndyCar career. Only three times has Castroneves finished on the podium in the tenth race of the season. In 21 starts in the tenth race of the season, his average finish is 13.476.
Colton Herta was 0.0213 seconds shy of advancing from group two, as that group ran entirely in the wet. Herta has finished seventh and second in his two Toronto starts. Five times has a driver finished second at Toronto and then won the next Toronto race. Those occasions are Michael Andretti in 1990 and 1991, Alex Zanardi in 1996 and 1997, Dario Franchitti in 2010 and 2011, Simon Pagenaud in 2018 and 2019 and Dixon in 2019 and last year.
The rain caught out Álex Palou in the first round of qualifying, and Palou will start 15th, his worst starting position of the season, and his worst since he started 22nd in this race at Toronto last year. Along with going for his fourth consecutive victory, Palou is attempting to become the first driver to open a season with ten consecutive top ten finishes since Dario Franchitti in 2007. Franchitti opened the 2007 season with 12 consecutive top ten results, three of which were victories with nine podium finishes and his worst result in that stretch was seventh.
Callum Ilott joins Palou on row eight after Ilott was 0.0616 seconds off advancing. Ilott started 16th at Belle Isle last month and failed to complete a lap. Ilott opened the season with finishes of fifth and ninth. Ilott's average finish in the seven races since is 17.571.
David Malukas lost his fastest two laps after impeding Scott Dixon during the group one qualifying session, and this means Malukas will start 17th. Malukas has finished 20th or worse in five of eight career street course starts.
Agustín Canapino scored his best starting position in his young IndyCar career with Canapino taking 18th. The Argentine driver has finished inside the top fifteen in two of his three street course starts, and Canapino was the top finishing rookie at Detroit in 14th.
Jack Harvey is 19th on the grid. This is the ninth time in ten races Harvey has started outside the top ten. He has finished outside the top fifteen in six consecutive races. Since becoming a full-time driver in 2020, Harvey has finished outside the top fifteen in 29 of 55 starts.
Tom Blomqvist makes his IndyCar debut from 20th on the grid. Blomqvist will become the sixth driver to make his IndyCar debut at Tornto. The first driver to do it was Jon Beekhuis in 1989. The other drivers to do were Bertand Gachot in 1993, Mimmo Schiattarella in 1994, Alex Sperafico in 2003 and Ryan Dalziel in 2005.
Ryan Hunter-Reay rolls off from 21st position. Hunter-Reay won the 2012 Toronto race. In Hunter-Reay's nine Toronto starts since that victory he has one top ten finish and had an average finish of 15.667. Hunter-Reay does not have a top ten finish in his last six starts, a slump which dates back to the 2021 season. He has not gone seven consecutive starts without a top ten result since the 2010 Homestead season finale through the first race of the 2011 Texas doubleheader.
Devlin DeFrancesco finds himself in 22nd on the grid for his home race in Canada. DeFrancesco has finished inside the top fifteen in three of the last four races. DeFrancesco had three top fifteen finishes in his first 22 starts. He didn't have top fifteen result until the 12th race last year.
Sting Ray Robb occupies 23rd on the grid. Robb has finished 22nd in three consecutive races. He has finished outside the top twenty in six consecutive races. Robb made four starts at Toronto in Indy Pro 2000. He had finishes of fifth, seventh and 11th twice.
Santino Ferrucci qualified 24th, Ferrucci's worst starting position on a street course this season. Ferrucci has an average finish of 18.667 on street courses this season. His average finish over the full season is 18.111.
Benjamin Pedersen starts 25th. This is Pedersen's worst starting position since starting 25th at Barber Motorsports Park. This is Pedersen's first visit to Toronto, as Indy Lights did not compete at Exhibition Place during his two seasons in that series.
Electrical issues knocked Alexander Rossi out in round one, and Rossi will start 26th, his worst start ever on a road/street course and only the second time he has started outside the top 25 in his career. The other was starting 32nd in the 2018 Indianapolis 500. The American has six consecutive top ten finishes for the first time since an eight-race stretch during the 2019 season. That eight-race run went from the sixth round at the Indianapolis 500 to the 13th round at Mid-Ohio. Rossi won the tenth round that season, which was at Road America.
Graham Rahal rounds out the grid in 27th after hitting the barrier during qualifying. This is the send time this season Rahal will be starting dead last. He started 27th at Detroit. Rahal has three top ten finishes in the last four Toronto races and four top ten finishes in the last six.
Peacock's coverage of the Honda Indy Toronto begins at 1:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:45 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.
