TORONTO – Simon Pagenaud realizes the street course at Toronto’s Exhibition Place has not been good to him in the past, even though he loves the challenge on the tight, slippery street circuit.
The defending Verizon IndyCar Series champion proved he had the speed on Friday as the fastest driver in the two practice sessions. His time of 1:00.2573 around the 1.786-mile, 11-turn street circuit (106.702 miles per hour) in a Chevrolet was the fastest of any driver on Friday.
“This track has been funny to me,” Pagenaud said. “It’s been interesting; we’ve never had much luck here with strategies throughout the years, since 2012. Hopefully it’s not a common trend because I’m hoping that this year is going to be a good one. But we’ve always been very competitive, and Toronto always has a twist in strategy and on the race and whatever happens.
“Like I said, that’s probably due to the grip changes throughout the corners that makes our life very difficult. We’ll see. Hopefully we’re on the right side of strategy this time.”
Team Penske driver Will Power was second at 1:00.4844 (106.302 mph) in another Chevrolet followed by Verizon IndyCar Series points leader Scott Dixon’s 1:00.6253 (106.055 mph) in Honda.
Dixon enters Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto with an eight-point lead over Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves in the battle for the championship. Castroneves’ Chevrolet was fifth fastest at 1:00.6485 (106.014 mph) behind fourth-place Graham Rahal’s Honda at 1:00.6388 (106.031 mph).
As usual, the challenge at Toronto is getting a grip on the race course.
“It’s a tough track to get the balance right,” Power said. “The grip levels are so different all the way around. You’ve got some bumpy areas with no grip and bumpy areas with grip, and then completely smooth areas. It’s something else.
“It’s very tough to get it all right.”
Power has two poles and three wins at Toronto, the most of any active driver in the field.
“I’ve been here enough times to have racked up some wins really,” Power said. “It’s not anything special I do around here. Yeah, it’s just your typical street course, and yeah, none of the wins were the same, and I did not do the same thing or the same setup or anything for each of them. Different every year. You’ve just got to really roll with the punches and be on your toes.”
Pagenaud admits he is struggling on parts of the track but exceling on other areas and that is why he was able to be fast on Friday.
“I’m struggling more with turn eight actually, those little patches,” Pagenaud said. “They’ve redone the complete braking zone, and all of a sudden you turn in and there’s a little patch here that’s right in the wrong spot. But that’s part of it. That’s what makes it fun, too. Like I said, if it was all renewed tarmac, it would be too easy almost. So, I think that’s what’s interesting.”
In eight previous Toronto races, Pagenaud has never qualified better than second or finished better than fourth. The 33-year-old Frenchman wants to improve in both areas in this weekend’s 33rd Indy car race at Toronto since 1986.
“The car has been phenomenal all day,” Pagenaud said. “I feel very comfortable. It’s great to be back in Toronto. This track is so much fun to drive on because it’s different to other tracks.
“Here it’s very low grip; you slide around in the corners. The tarmac changes throughout the corner and it’s giving you a great challenge. I really enjoy that, I really do. Every corner’s different and you need to change your driving corner to corner. It’s not boring, I can tell you that.”
Sebastian Saavedra, named Thursday to drive the No. 7 Lucas Oil Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda in place of Mikhail Aleshin, was in an Indy car on a street course Friday for the first time in two years. The 27-year-old Colombian carefully worked his way up to speed with a best lap of 1:02.1493 (103.454 mph), that ranked 21st for the day.
“It’s a little bit of a last-minute scenario, which leaves very little time to prepare,” Saavedra said. “We went out there and tried to get familiar with this Honda-powered machine. This is my first time in a Honda-powered car with this aero kit, so definitely there’s a lot to learn, but altogether very positive.”
Source :speedsport.com
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