Qualifying Report: Honda Indy Toronto

TORONTO July 16, 2016—“Really disappointing qualifying, a kick in the gut really,” Jack Hawksworth said after barely missing out on advancing to the next round by just six hundredths of a second around the 1.786-mile street circuit in Toronto’s Exhibition Place. Hawksworth posted a time of 1 minute, 0.6930 seconds (105.936mph); he will start 13th on the inside of row seven in the No. 41 ABC Supply Honda.

“We were fast this morning,” said Hawksworth, who was sixth in this morning’s practice, making his No. 41 car the fastest of the Honda-powered cars. “We were very quick on the blacks in qualifying but when we put the reds on, we picked up a bit too much understeer and missed out advancing by a fraction of a second. Disappointed, but the ABC Supply Honda was strong on the blacks and has been strong all weekend. We’re starting in the middle of the pack so hopefully we can have a solid race. We look forward to tomorrow because we have a fast car.”

Takuma Sato was also disappointed with his qualifying run in the No. 14 ABC Supply Honda. His fastest timed lap of 1 minute, 1.4012 seconds (104.715mph) puts him 20th on the grid.

“It was a disappointing result having had a strong practice session in the ABC Supply Honda yesterday,” Sato said. “We seemed to struggle in practice this morning and now in qualifying. I don’t know why, we just couldn’t seem to get a good grip and good balance. We’re looking into the data now.”

Sato was pleased with his car yesterday even though he slipped from fourth in Practice 1 to 18th in Practice 2 because he was on the same set of tires for the entire afternoon session. Most of the cars used two sets in the afternoon, and they picked up speed with the second set of new tires. However, the changes the team explored to further improve the car in this morning’s practice yielded both positives and negatives as he finished 15th in that session. More changes before qualifying did not produce the expected results so the team will be poring over the data well into the evening to figure out their next moves before tomorrow morning’s final warmup session.

Scott Dixon won the Verizon P1 Award, snaring it from Helio Castroneves on the final lap of the Firestone Fast Six Round. Dixon’s time of 59.9073 seconds (107.326mph) edged out Castroneves’ time of 59.9425 seconds (107.263mph) by just 3.5 hundredths of a second. Simon Pagenaud, Will Power, Sebastien Bourdais and the popular Canadian James Hinchcliffe rounded out the top six.

The Honda Indy Toronto will be broadcast tomorrow afternoon starting at 2:30 p.m. ET on the CNBC network.