Scott Dixon secured his first pole position of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season as he denied Team Penske another top spot with a great last gasp lap around the streets of Toronto on Saturday.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver secured the pole with a time of 59.9073 to take his first pole position since Mid-Ohio in August 2015, with Dixon denying Helio Castroneves by just 0.0352 seconds.
Championship leader Simon Pagenaud will start third for Penske after a great lap set on the harder black tyres, and he’ll alongside team-mate Will Power, while Sebastien Bourdais confirmed his practice speed with fifth for KVSH Racing.
James Hinchcliffe was the sole Honda-powered representative in the Fast Six shootout, but the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver could do no better than that sixth position on the grid for his home race.
Conor Daly was undoubtedly one of the stars of qualifying, making it through to the second phase in his Dale Coyne Racing machine, and will start seventh on Sunday, alongside last weekend’s winner at Iowa Speedway, Josef Newgarden of Ed Carpenter Racing.
Juan Pablo Montoya will start ninth for Penske after having limited track running following his free practice two crash on Friday and his subsequent set-up issues in Saturday morning practice, with the Colombian being joined on row five by Schmidt’s Mikhail Aleshin.
Luca Filippi will start eleventh for Dale Coyne Racing, with Tony Kanaan the final driver to make it through to the second phase of qualifying, but the Chip Ganassi Racing driver could do no better than twelfth.
Briton’s Jack Hawksworth and Max Chilton will share row seven for AJ Foyt Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing respectively, while a big disappointment will be reserved for Andretti Autosport, who failed to get any of their four drivers past the first phase of qualifying, with Carlos Munoz the best placed of the quartet in fifteenth.
Helio Castroneves – Credit: Chris Jones / IndyCar
Toronto Qualifying Result
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