Andretti Autosport’s early weekend promise at the Honda Indy Toronto came up short on Saturday during a rain-affected qualifying at Exhibition Place.
After being phenomenally quick on Friday with Romain Grosjean and Kyle Kirkwood will start the race from eighth and ninth place respectively. Speaking after setting a time of 01:12.3316s, Kyle Kirkwood said:
“I thought that our run was really good, it was just unfortunate that we got caught in traffic. We also went a little bit too early on tires, which set us back in the mix. But we know our car is super fast, and we’ve felt good about it all weekend. Andretti Autosport has been doing a fantastic job. Honestly, our car was good enough to pole there in the wet, timing was just slightly off.”
Romain Grosjean in the No.28 DHL Honda will roll off from ninth place and speaking following the action after setting a time of 01:12.5611s he commented saying:
“The weather today made for a tough session. The rain on the street course is always a challenge, but I think we had a brilliant car when it was wet. Although, once it dried out a bit, I feel like we used our tires too much. Despite not making it to the Firestone Fast 6, it was still positive that I got my first experience driving on the wet at a street course. I was the leader of the group in Segment 1. Overall, I’m looking forward to getting back out there and racing tomorrow.”
Colton Herta endured a tricky qualifying session in the No.26 Gainbridge Honda as he starts the race just ahead of Alex Palou after setting the fastest time of 01:14.8356s and speaking following the action he commented saying:
“We just didn’t have the speed that we needed in that session. We’ve been really quick in the dry this whole weekend, but unfortunately we didn’t have it in the wet and just got knocked out of position. Although, I think it was good to get a little bit of time running in the wet in case we have a rain race tomorrow. In the rain, the tire traction decreases a lot and can be especially tough on street courses, but we’ll be ready to perform well on track tomorrow.”
Devlin DeFrancesco starts his home race on the streets of Toronto from 22nd place with a time of 01:16.0598s and speaking following the action he commented saying:
“Obviously qualifying was not ideal. The rain impacted my visibility which made it difficult to navigate through traffic. Although, I think that we can take what we did today and move forward in a positive direction. We just need to have our heads down tomorrow and have a good race.”