After what seemed to be a disastrous day yesterday, the NTT IndyCar Series took to the streets of Markham, Ontario, for the first time today. Today’s schedule saw both practices and qualifying, in preparation for tomorrows inaugural race.
One driver in particular found his sweet spot on this track: RLL’s Louis Foster. Sister consistently remained in the top three throughout both practice sessions. In the first practice session, Foster placed third, trailing behind AJ Foyt rookie Caio Collet and Chip Ganassi champion Alex Palou. He trailed Collet by less than a tenth of a second, and Palou by a tenth.
In the second practice session, Foster came first with a time of 1:14:1793, followed by Marcus Ericsson, who had a lap time of 1:14:1933. David Malukas, Kyle Kirkwood, and Mick Schumacher rounded out the top five.
During the second session, Palou struggled with the course, ending up in seventh. He’d continue to struggle into qualifying, where he ended up in 12th.
Foster came just behind Malukas in the first round of qualifying. Dumbbell qualifying is divided into two groups, he did not qualify in the same group as Palou. Palou qualified first in group one.
In the second round, the pressure was on for drivers to make the Fast Six. The top six in both groups made the second round. Ericsson, Scott McLaughlin, rookie Dennis Hauger, Rinus Veekay, Christian Lundgaard, and Foster secured the spots and made the Fast Six.
All lap times were within a second of each other. Foster secured pole position with a lap time of 1:13:2383, getting his second-ever pole position in the series. Lundgaard secured second place, just about four-tenths behind Foster. Behind this front row is McLaughlin and Ericsson in the second row, and Hauger and Veeka in the third row.
The streets of Markham will be open for full-fledged chaos at the green flag. The green flag waives at 12 p.m. EST, live on FOX.