On July 9th, the Firestone Indy Lights hit to the 11-turn temporary street course at Exhibition Place in Toronto, which saw Esteban Guerrieri score his third consecutive Sonoco Pole award with a lap of 1 minute, 2.986 seconds. With the pole, Guerreri gave team owner Sam Schmidt his 42nd pole award.
“Since the beginning, everything worked quite well,” he said. “We were quick yesterday and we didn’t put any tires, we saved the tires for qualifying this morning, and I was feeling good straight away. I love the circuit, I love the city, the atmosphere, everything, so I had a lot of fun. The reward for the guys is the best I can give them, so I’m very grateful to them and to my sponsors.”
Stefan Wilson will join him on the front row (1:03:45) after losing his quickest lap (1:02:8714), and what would’ve been his first pole start, due to a local caution on the course.
“I felt like I got the best out of my car and pushed it to the limit,” he said. “Unfortunately I still had my last lap taken away with the yellow flag, so I’m pretty upset about that. It felt amazing; the car felt good. We made some really good changes this weekend and I was definitely a contender for the pole. It’s just heartbreaking to get that taken away. It just gives us more motivation to go for the win tomorrow.”
Wilson’s teammate Peter Dempsy qualified third, followed by Anders Korhn and Josef Newgarden.
Gustvao Yacaman got sixth, followed by Duarte Ferreira and Bruno Andrade. The race in Toronto on the 1.755-mile course will mark Andrade’s Firestone Indy Lights debut.
