There is no doubt that, at an informative level, Álex Palou and Colton Herta have been the great protagonists of the week. The first, due to his already famous contractual dispute between a Ganassi for which he still drives and a McLaren that claims to have signed him, with a Formula 1 test on the horizon… like the one Herta carried out with that formation this very end. of week. Engrossed in the Indy Toronto dispute, both have started Saturday with very different designsbeing again the Spanish rider who has the least to celebrate.
Barely 10 minutes had passed in the second free practice session when Palou, who was starting his eighth lap, made a mistake attacking turn 2, lightly hitting the inside wall with the right front tire. His car bounced to the other side of the track, suffering two other impacts of a similar nature against the cement. His car suffered significant damage to the left front and right rear suspension, and did not return to the track. A less than ideal circumstance, not having been able to test the softs today before going out to qualify later (20:00 in Spain).
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On the opposite side of the table was Herta, who ended up recording the best time of the day and complete the free practice double led by Andretti Autosport. The American driver, whose only IndyCar race at Toronto ended with a seventh-place finish in his debut season in 2019, and who had not had much luck in his previous Road to Indy experiences, finished fastest with a time of 1:00,047 and a not insignificant margin in a grid in which the top 19 finished in less than a second.
At almost two tenths, in fact, he finished in second place Marcus Ericsonwho continues to confidently defend his status as leader of the general classification by being once again the fastest Ganassi driver, with Scott Dixon in sixth position. As usual, the Penske drivers are on the prowl, this time with Will Power and Scott McLaughlin in the top four. could not be added Josef Newgarden, who remained practically unpublished before an alarm in his car forced him to take it to the garage. Immediately, Penske got down to business change your enginewithout mileage penalty.
In the absence of contrasting it in the official sessions, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing seems to have taken a step forward in competitiveness in Toronto. Graham Rahlwho finished third in Friday practice, was seventh today, and his teammate Christian Lundgaard, yesterday at the gates of the top 10 as the second best first-timer in Toronto after Palou, climbed this time to fifth position. In the same way, David Malukas it was another rookie who took it upon himself to dot the i’s in eighth place in one of Coyne’s cars, beating Felix Rosenqvist and Friday leaders Alexander Rossi and Simon Pagenaud.
In a session whose start had to be delayed 33 minutes to repair the damage caused by an accident in a previous GT race (including the wiring of two television cameras), there were two other accidents, more serious than those of Palou. The French Romain Grosjean wrote another page of his julius horribilis when impacting on the exit of the last corner with the right rear tire, destroying the entire suspension. In the final minutes, takuma sato He completed the job in the difficult turn 6, in which he suffered understeer and left a good part of his car.
RESULTS OF THE FREE 2 OF THE INDY TORONTO
Photos: IndyCar Media