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IndyCar Toronto: Herta ends win drought in red-flagged race

Andretti Global’s Colton Herta ended a more than two-year IndyCar win drought with victory in a dramatic Toronto street race that was red-flagged for a multi-car crash.

After starting on pole, Herta managed to lead 81 of 85 laps on a weekend that saw him lead every session and eventually beat team-mate Kyle Kirkwood by 0.3469s to pick up his first win since May 2022 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course – a run of 41 IndyCar races.

After a miserable qualifying for Chip Ganassi, Scott Dixon stormed from 15th to third, ahead of team-mates Alex Palou in fourth and Marcus Armstrong in fifth.

The Toronto race was red-flagged with 13 laps to go after Pato O’Ward spun at Turn 1, which put Marcus Ericsson into the outside wall.

Unsighted by the stricken cars, Pietro Fittipaldi and Santio Ferrucci ended up running into O’Ward's car, with Ferrucci launching off the nose and sending him into the air and riding the catchfence before rolling upside down and coming to a stop on overturned.

Ferrucci was unhurt in the incident, with his spotter apologising and noting he was blind to that part of the track from the hotel vantage point where several other spotters were located.

Santino Ferrucci, A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet (Photo by: Joe Skibinski)

Arrow McLaren rookie Nolan Siegel was directly behind Fittipaldi and Ferrucci, and was part of a triple-hit on the front of O’Ward’s car. Dale Coyne Racing rookie Toby Sowery was also involved, rear ending Siegel.

After a near-20 minutes suspension Herta led the field at the restart with nine laps to go.

But the race was under caution once again moments later after Scott McLaughlin was hip-checked by Penske team-mate Will Power at Turn 5, sending the former into the wall and destroying his right-front. At the same time, the third Penske of Josef Newgarden was hit with a right-rear puncture and was forced to pit.

Power was given a drive-through penalty for colliding with McLaughlin, which enabled Meyer Shank Racing’s David Malukas to take a season’s best of sixth place ahead of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard in seventh.

Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing), Romain Grosjean (Juncos Hollinger Racing), Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) rounded out the top 10.

IndyCar Toronto - Race results

   
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Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval Mph Pits Points Retirement
1 United States C. Herta Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian 26 85

1:39'28.4293

  101.792      
2 United States K. Kirkwood Andretti Global 27 85

+0.3469

1:39'28.7762

0.3469 102.012      
3 New Zealand S. Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 9 85

+0.9680

1:39'29.3973

0.6211 102.366      
4 Spain A. Palou Chip Ganassi Racing 10 85

+1.6911

1:39'30.1204

0.7231 102.119      
5 New Zealand M. Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing 11 85

+2.7719

1:39'31.2012

1.0808 101.767      
6 United States D. Malukas Meyer Shank Racing 66 85

+3.0853

1:39'31.5146

0.3134 102.017      
7 Denmark C. Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 45 85

+3.8925

1:39'32.3218

0.8072 101.976      
8 Netherlands R. van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing 21 85

+4.6346

1:39'33.0639

0.7421 102.301      
9 France R. Grosjean Juncos Hollinger Racing 77 85

+5.6537

1:39'34.0830

1.0191 100.407      
10 United States G. Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 15 85

+6.1456

1:39'34.5749

0.4919 101.126      
11 United States J. Newgarden Team Penske 2 85

+10.4924

1:39'38.9217

4.3468 101.495      
12 Australia W. Power Team Penske 12 85

+11.5555

1:39'39.9848

1.0631 104.279      
13 Sweden L. Lundqvist Chip Ganassi Racing 8 84

+1 Lap

1:39'35.1306

1 Lap 101.954      
14 United States A. Rossi Arrow McLaren 7 84

+1 Lap

1:39'35.5503

0.4197 101.825      
15 United Kingdom T. Sowery Dale Coyne Racing 51 84

+1 Lap

1:39'35.9040

0.3537 101.978      
16 New Zealand S. McLaughlin Team Penske 3 76

+9 Laps

1:28'10.8618

8 Laps 71.550     Accident
17 Mexico P. O'Ward Arrow McLaren 5 72

+13 Laps

1:21'44.4725

4 Laps 97.786     Accident
18 Sweden M. Ericsson Andretti Global 28 72

+13 Laps

1:21'46.8808

2.4083 97.078     Accident
19 Brazil P. Fittipaldi Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 30 72

+13 Laps

1:21'49.6394

2.7586 95.613     Accident
20 United States S. Ferrucci A.J. Foyt Enterprises 14 72

+13 Laps

1:21'50.1026

0.4632 95.518     Accident
21
N. Siegel Arrow McLaren
6 72

+13 Laps

1:21'50.7316

0.6290 95.142     Accident
22 United States K. Simpson Chip Ganassi Racing 4 66

+19 Laps

1:14'02.5914

6 Laps 103.886     Accident
23 Sweden F. Rosenqvist Meyer Shank Racing 60 63

+22 Laps

1:10'40.7835

3 Laps 103.101     Mechanical
24
H. McElrea Dale Coyne Racing
18 57

+28 Laps

1:04'49.1748

6 Laps 92.443     Accident
25
R. Robb A.J. Foyt Enterprises
41 13

+72 Laps

17'46.8887

44 Laps 101.754     Mechanical
26 Argentina A. Canapino Juncos Hollinger Racing 78 4

+81 Laps

6'13.8674

9 Laps 76.624     Accident
27
C. Rasmussen Ed Carpenter Racing
20 0

+85 Laps

1.2612

4 Laps 66.790     Accident
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