For the second time in three practice sessions around the streets of Toronto this weekend, Sebastien Bourdais found himself at the top of the time sheets, with the KVSH Racing Frenchman setting the best time of the weekend so far.
Bourdais lowered the best time to a 1:00.6035 during Saturday morning’s final free practice session before qualifying, finishing ahead of a trio of Team Penske drivers, led by championship leader Simon Pagenaud.
The two Frenchmen at the front of the field were separated by 0.2675 seconds, with Will Power and Helio Castroneves the only other drivers to dip beneath the 61-second mark.
Scott Dixon was the lead Chip Ganassi Racing driver in fifth, while Jack Hawksworth showed good pace in sixth for AJ Foyt Racing, with the Briton the leading Honda-powered driver in a session dominated again by Chevrolet.
Graham Rahal was seventh for his father’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team ahead of Charlie Kimball, who recovered well after crashing during second practice on Friday for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Mikhail Aleshin was ninth for Schmidt Peterson Motorsport despite crashing and causing a red flag during the session, with the Russian suffering damage after hitting the inside of turn seven.
Tony Kanaan completed the top ten for Chip Ganassi Racing as once again the times were close amongst all the runners, with less than a second covering the top seventeen, and 1.5403 seconds separate Bourdais from Spencer Pigot at the back of the field.
There were some minor alterations to the racetrack since second practice, with the wall at turn eight moved back six feet to give more room, while smooth patches at turns one and nine were sandblasted in order to give some more grip to the drivers.
Toronto Free Practice 3 Result
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