It was a shorter practice day than expected for the Verizon IndyCar Series in Toronto on Friday, with mother nature once again to blame. Teams and drivers returned to the street course today, after spending last weekend at the high-speed Texas Motor Speedway. Only three of these final seven races in 2015 will be run on non-ovals, which begins this weekend with the Honda Indy Toronto.
The morning practice session saw a lot of bouncing cars, as the bumpy streets had drivers searching for balance. Indy 500 winner and current points leader Juan Montoya was the fastest, with a lap of 1:00.6343 seconds. Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud was just behind him in second, followed by the CFH Racing duo of Josef Newgarden and Luca Filippi. Sebastien Bourdais, who won one of the doubleheader races here last year, rounded out the top five.
Click here to see Full Results from Practice 1
Conditions were dry, and there was only one Honda-powered car (Graham Rahal) in the top 11. Positions 12-23 saw only two Chevrolet cars, meaning that 10 of the bottom 12 belonged to Honda. One of those bottom two Chevy’s was last weekend’s winner, Scott Dixon. His car stalled towards the end of practice, which essentially ended the session. Dixon only managed to squeeze in ten laps, but that would be it as the rain began to fall before the afternoon session even began.
The rain was heavy, and with the forecast for tomorrow and Sunday looking very good (sunny and dry), teams and drivers didn’t want to take an unnecessary risk on the wet pavement. The second practice session was scrapped, and drivers will have to wait until tomorrow to return to the track. There were 353 combined laps turned by 23 drivers on Friday.
There will be one final 45-minute practice session tomorrow at 10:40 AM, followed by qualifying for the Honda Indy Toronto, which begins at 2:30 PM.
Practice Photos via IndyCar
Fastest 33 