Colton Herta has secured pole position for the second year in a row at the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto. The American was the only driver during the Fast 6 qualifying session to complete a lap in under one minute. Alex Palou qualified second, ahead of Marcus Armstrong and Will Power on the second row.

In the opening segment, Group 2 appeared to be stronger than Group 1, but as always, qualifying brought several surprises. Right away, some big names you'd expect in the Fast 12 were eliminated: Scott McLaughlin, Felix Rosenqvist, Christian Lundgaard, Santino Ferrucci, David Malukas, and Josef Newgarden.

In Group 1, Kyle Kirkwood set the fastest lap, followed by Will Power, Scott Dixon, a surprisingly quick Callum Ilott, Graham Rahal, and Louis Foster. In the faster Group 2, there were shocks right at the top: Marcus Armstrong set the fastest time, with an impressive Rinus VeeKay close behind. Alex Palou, Marcus Ericsson, Colton Herta, and Pato O’Ward also advanced to the Fast 12.

Kirkwood again topped the timesheets in the Fast 12, while Power, Herta, Rahal, Palou, and Armstrong also advanced to the Firestone Fast 6. Pato O’Ward was a surprising elimination, ending up in tenth. He finished just ahead of Dixon, who brushed the wall coming onto the front straight and couldn’t do better than P11. The Ganassi Racing driver also carries a six-place grid penalty, dropping him to P17 for the start.

Despite many drivers using two sets of alternate (red) tires in Segment 1, Rahal was the only driver in the Firestone Fast 6 without a fresh set of softs. On new tires, Armstrong was the first to post a flying lap, but he was soon knocked off the top spot by Herta, who went half a second quicker. Palou couldn’t match Herta’s pace but did secure P2.

All eyes then turned to Kirkwood—the fastest driver in the first two rounds. However, he was already sitting in the pits with a lap time over 4.5 seconds off the pace. Just as he was about to start his push for pole, he exited the final corner with massive oversteer, costing him significant speed. He immediately dove into the pits, ending any hopes of taking pole. That left teammate Herta to claim the top spot for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto.

Full results of the qualifying session at Toronto