IndyCar | Practice 1 | Toronto | Kirkwood fastest from McLaughlin on low grip streets - Motorsport

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Practice 1 for round 13 of the 2025 IndyCar season at Toronto is in the books, full report and results below.

Nolan Siegel returned to action for missing race 2 at Iowa. He passed a medical check on Thursday. Meanwhile Alex Palou was aiming for a good start to the weekend as he chases win number 8 of 2025. The Spaniard took his first win on a short oval last Sunday.

Not long before practice started, Scott Dixon got handed a 6-place grid drop for Sunday because of an unapproved engine change.

Full field practice

After a slow start under beautiful blue skies, Alex Rossi led the way 15 minutes in. A 1:03.545 put him almost a second clear of Kyffin Simpson. The former Indy 500 winner found half a second on his next proper flier to do a 1:03.041. Teammate Christian Rasmussen moved into 2nd with a 1:03.685, a hundreth ahead of the CGR.

Foster and Siegel were in the 1:04s, with Abel on a 1:05.115.

At the front, Rasmussen went ahead of his teammate by 0.028s as a 1:03.013 put him top.

With just over 20 minutes to go, Santino Ferrucci went top as he logged a 1:02.849. Just before that, replays showed Christian Lundgaard clipping the wall on the exit of turn 11 with his right hand side tyres. He escaped damage.

Down at turn 8, Christian Rasmussen went deep into the run-off after getting his braking wrong. O’Ward did the same a couple of minutes later.

The big teams go fast

Out front, a 1:01.905 from Will Power put him ahead of Newgarden, O’Ward, Herta and Rosenqvist as the big guns started to flex their pace with 16 minutes to go.

As he went P5 on a low grip surface, Alex Palou laid massive skid marks out of turn 5 with the Spaniard and everyone battled the tricky surface.

Power led Herta, Newgarden, O’Ward, Palou, Rosenqvist, Armstrong, Kirkwood, McLaughlin and Ericsson with 10 minutes to go.

In turn 8, Scott McLaughlin, Santino Ferrucci and Pato O’Ward all ended up down the run-off at the same time. The Kiwi dumped the clutch and did a good job to avoid getting hit by the McLaren driver as the Mexican was locking up and joining him in the run-off. Colton Herta had his own excursion a few moments later as a lot of drivers had lock-ups.

A last gasp effort from Rinus VeeKay moved him up from 16th to P9, with Kirkwood the lead Honda-powered car in P5.

Full field practice 1 classification and results at IndyCar Toronto

Power
Herta
Newgarden
O’Ward
Kirkwood
Palou
Rosenqvist
Armstrong
VeeKay
McLaughlin
Ericsson
Foster
Lundgaard
Malukas
Ferrucci
Dixon
Rahal
Rasmussen
Rossi
Ilott
Simpson
DeFrancesco
Siegel
Shwartzman
Daly
Robb
Abel

Split field running

Group 1

In the early stages, a 1:02.643 from Christian Lundgaard put him a tenth ahead of Scott Dixon, with Power half a tenth behind his rival. Ferrucci and Rahal were in the 1:03s for P4 and P5.

Using the softs, Alex Rossi did a 1:02.536, before the Dane responded on the hards as he clocked a 1:02.392. Santino Ferrucci logged a 1:02.379 shortly after that on softs to go P1.

Despite having to do a massive amount of hustling, Rossi went to the top again as he pumped in a 1:02.223. The track surface was unbelievably slippery and lacking grip. Newgarden moved into P2 as he did a 1:02.270 with just over 5 minutes left.

Not for the first time, Colton Herta locked his right front and had to go down the turn 8 run-off.

Unusually, the softs did not give a big leap on a very tricky surface. Nonetheless, Will Power did improve his own benchmark from all car running as the Australian smashed in a 1:01.853, 0.109s faster than Christian Lundgaard. They were the only drivers in the 1:01s.

Rosenqvist, Dixon, Rahal and Rossi completed the top 6. Foster, Newgarden, Ferrucci, Simpson, DeFrancesco, Shwartzman, Abel, Daly and Herta completed the order. The Andretti driver hd a torrid time on softs and could not get a fast lap in.

Group 1 practice 1 classification and results at IndyCar Toronto

Power
Lundgaard
Rosenqvist
Dixon
Rahal
Rossi
Foster
Newgarden
Ferrucci
Simpson
DeFrancesco
Shwartzman
Abel
Daly
Herta

Group 2

After running in Group 1, Jacob Abel and all the rookies could continue running in the second one. He did a 1:02.547 on his softs to put in an oveeall competitive time. However, out of turn 6, he gave the wall a big clip and his crew were seen fixing the toe link.

ECR’s Christian Rasmussen clocked a 1:02.092 to put in a very good time with 8 minutes left to go. However, that was smashed a couple of minutes later as Kyle Kirkwood did a stunning 1:01.395. It was 0.697s quicker than the Dane, and he was almost half a second ahead of Power’s Group 1 time.

Defending champion Alex Palou did a 1:01.7, 1:01.6 and finally a 1:01.598 to go 2nd in Group 2 and overall. Marcus Armstrong was P3 as the MSR driver put in a 1:01.699.

Inside the final minute, Scott McLaughlin briefly went top as he did a 1:01.341 in his Team Penske car. However, Kirkwood responded to end up fastest by put in a cracking 1:01.205 to end the day quickest.

Callum Ilott was impressive as a very late lap put him 5th in Group 2 behind Palou and Armstrong.

P2 in the standings, Pato O’Ward was only P6. After his best lap, he went deep at turn 8 thanks to another lock-up and trip to the run-off. 7 of the top 10 times on the day came from this Group.