Toronto – Qualifications: Will Power ahead of Simon Pagenaud

Will Power enters the IndyCar annals a little more by securing the 41st pole position of his career, the fifth best score in history. The Penskes are well placed again, occupying the top three spots. Scott Dixon is in ambush in 4th place just ahead of Sébastien Bourdais and the surprising Luca Fillipi.

The first single-seater with a Honda engine is that of Takuma Sato, in 8th position.

Bourdais, the man to beat

Sébastien Bourdais is statistically the strong man of the Canadian event. The race was on the Champ Car schedule during the golden years of the Bourdais/Paul Newman duo. The Frenchman holds the records for 4 pole positions, 188 laps led, 2 victories tied with Dixon and Power, and he finished in the top 10 ten times in 11 participations.

Hinchcliffe still recovering

James Hinchcliffe will not be able to race at home. The Canadian is still suffering from his left leg after his serious accident in Indianapolis in May. He keeps smiling despite this and considers himself the luckiest of the unlucky guys. It’s the young American Conor Daly who will replace him once again at the wheel of the Dallara-Honda of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. His replacement for the Texas race, Ryan Briscoe, was supposed to participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the official Corvette team. Unfortunately, the car was unable to start the race following a violent crash in qualifying.

A constructors’ championship still very open

Despite Chevrolet’s dominance, with 9 wins compared to 2 for Honda, the American manufacturer only has a 45-point lead in the championship, less than a single win. Reliability is the Achilles’ heel for the engine manufacturer in IndyCar; even before the second race of the season, Chevrolet was penalized 220 points for “non-minor repairs” to strengthen its engines. It ended up with a negative score, at -92 points compared to 70 for Honda.

Dixon bares his teeth

Regarding the color changes, Scott Dixon sports a black and silver livery to promote the movie *Jurassic World*. Juan Pablo Montoya, accustomed to red and white, finds himself in white and blue, while Helio Castroneves leaves those same colors for his white and black *Hitachi*. The red and white will be worn by Marco Andretti, through his new sponsor *Dr Pepper*.

On the driver side, note the return of Sebastian Saavedra, who has been sharing the wheel of the Ganassi No. 8 with Sage Karam since the beginning of the year. Rodolfo Gonzalez and Tristan Vautier continue (for now) to race with the Dale Coyne Racing team.

The race will be broadcast this Sunday evening at 9:25 PM on Canal+ Sport.

(R) = Rookie (beginner)