Louis Foster surprisingly claimed pole position for the inaugural Ontario Honda Dealers Indy in Markham. In the Firestone Fast 6, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver set a lap on a used set of tires that was nearly four-tenths of a second faster than the competition. Christian Lundgaard will start alongside Foster on the front row, with Scott McLaughlin and Marcus Ericsson on the second row. Rinus VeeKay qualified sixth.

Following Friday's problems with the track, qualifying did not get underway until 6:30 p.m. local time. It would produce a spectacular qualifying session.

Chaos in the First Qualifying Segment

In the first qualifying group of the opening segment, Alex Palou set the fastest time. In the seemingly weaker group, Scott McLaughlin, Dennis Hauger, Marcus Ericsson, Graham Rahal and Scott Dixon also advanced to the Fast 12. The biggest surprises were Sting Ray Robb, who qualified 17th and Caio Collet, who was unable to turn his impressive practice pace into a strong qualifying position.

The second qualifying group's session would descend into chaos. While most of the frontrunners were making their runs on the soft tires, Will Power spun and caused a red flag. This was particularly bad news for drivers such as Rinus VeeKay, Felix Rosenqvist and Kyle Kirkwood, who were still outside the top six at the time. The track was reopened for one final qualifying lap, but there was not enough time to get the tires up to temperature, leaving the top six unchanged. The session would also end under a red flag after Josef Newgarden crashed.

After the session, however, it became clear that Pato O'Ward had caused a local yellow and therefore had his fastest lap deleted. As a result, VeeKay moved from seventh to sixth and was able to advance to the Fast 12. David Malukas was fastest in this group, ahead of Louis Foster, Alexander Rossi, Mick Schumacher, Christian Lundgaard and the aforementioned VeeKay.

Alex Palou Crashes in the Second Segment

The second segment made it clear that even the seemingly untouchable Palou can be beaten. The championship leader already held the fastest time when he lost control of his car while braking for Turn 10 and hit the wall. As a result, he lost his two fastest laps and finished last in the group.

Ericsson set the fastest time in the group, ahead of McLaughlin, a surprising Hauger, VeeKay, Lundgaard and Foster. This meant that six different teams were represented in the Firestone Fast 6.

Louis Foster Surprises with Pole

The Firestone Fast 6 would prove to be the only session that did not need to be interrupted by a red flag. Foster, Ericsson and VeeKay would run used sets of soft tires, while the other three drivers used a fresh set of tires. Much like when he claimed his first career pole position at Road America in 2024, Foster extracted a remarkable amount of performance from his used tires and put together a monster lap that was nearly four-tenths of a second faster than the rest of the field.

Lundgaard posted the second-fastest time, ahead of McLaughlin, Ericsson, Hauger and VeeKay.

Full results of the qualifying session at Markham