Last year, Will Power won the Honda Indy Toronto and in beginning the quest to go back-to-back, Power won the PEAK Performance Pole Award at Exhibition Place in Toronto. Power’s lap of 59.5771 seconds gives him his fifth road course pole award of the season and eighth in a row over the past two seasons.
“I think it’s impossible to get a good balance around this place with so many different surfaces and the bumps,” he said. “So you got to make the most of it.
“It seems impossible to put a perfect lap together, too. You gain somewhere on one lap and you lose it somewhere else. It’s such a fun track because you absolutely ring the car’s neck in every possible way, under brakes, on power, everywhere. It’s always fun.
“I don’t think qualifying is a big deal because I really think you can come from the back and win this race. It’s just that sort of track. Plenty of passing, lots of mayhem.”
Scott Dixon qualified second to start on the front row for the second time this season with a lap of 59.6646 seconds.
“It was pretty tough,” he said. “As I said yesterday, I think the track’s very demanding, more so this year with the bumps, just where you got to try to get the speed out of the car.
“Qualifying was pretty smooth for us for the first two groups. I think the big question for most people today was how much you’re actually going to gain on the reds. Maybe some speculation they weren’t going to be much quicker at all. Turned out they were. So, you know, pretty decent. Little disappointed with Q3. We might adjust. Had enough in it. I’m sure Will didn’t get the most out of his lap as well. At least we’ve made improvements. The cars are quicker and obviously quicker to the No. 12 that’s been dominating on the road courses. Pretty happy all in all. Pretty confident both Target cars will be strong in the race.”
IZOD IndyCar Series Points Leader Dario Franchitti qualified third (59.900), followed by Mike Conway (59.9330) and Graham Rahal.
“I thought that my car was good,” he said. “That last Fast Six, I didn’t get the most out of it. I kept screwing up one corner and eventually got it halfway right, by which point was about lap five. Probably the best of the tire had gone. That was totally my fault. I didn’t get into rhythm quick enough. So ended up third.
“I felt we probably had enough to get close to these guys, maybe not ahead. But P3 is all right. I think I’m happy with the way that the Target car is on black and red tires. We’ll see what we’ve got tomorrow.”
Franchitti set the track record at the beginning of the session in the first round of qualifying with a lap of 59.3535 seconds, however it was Power who had the quickest lap during the Firestone Fast Six Qualifying round.
