TORONTO – Just two weeks ago, Alexander Rossi was embattled in a feud with Andretti Autosport teammate Romain Grosjean in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.
Thanks to Alex Palou’s bitter contract dispute with Chip Ganassi Racing and McLaren, Rossi’s controversy looks minor.
Rossi was the fastest driver in Friday’s only practice session for Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto. The driver of the No. 27 NAPA/AutoNation Honda at Andretti Autosport whipped his Honda around the 11-turn, 1.786-mile temporary street course at Exhibition Place in 1:00.6090 for a speed of 106.083 MPH.
That was faster than Simon Pagenaud’s 1:00.6090 (105.926 mph) in the No. 60 SiriusXM/AutoNation Honda for Meyer-Shank Racing.
Pagenaud won the most previous Honda Indy 200 in 2019. The race was not held in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But it is back this year and Rossi and Pagenaud want to turn back the clock to 2019, the last season Rossi won a race and Pagenaud won at Toronto.
“It’s great to be back,” Rossi said after practice. “This track hasn’t always necessarily been one of my favorites, but I think the Andretti Autosport street course cars are strong, so that makes it fun for us.
“It’s just great to be back to a track that’s been missing off the schedule for a couple years. We pride ourselves on the diversity of tracks we go to. It’s pretty awesome to be back and to see how many fans are already in the stands on a Friday. Really pleased with that.”
In a sense, Rossi has a “love-hate” relationship with the Honda Indy Toronto. He loves the town, but not the race course.
But on Friday, he showed flashes of his old speed from when he was one of the top drivers in IndyCar.
“I think when comparing to some of the other street courses we go to, I think Long Beach and Detroit are some of my favorite tracks, just globally,” Rossi said. “Then St. Pete is always an amazing event as well.
“We’re just fortunate to go to so many awesome street courses. I think the last three corners is what makes it tough from an enjoyment standpoint.
“But that aside, like I said in the beginning, this event, this city is amazing, and we’re thrilled to be back here. It’s even better when you have a car that’s pretty good.
“We’ll put all that behind us and carry on tomorrow and hopefully it’s a good day, too.”
Graham Rahal, who has been part of a struggling Rahal Letterman Lanigan team this season, was third quick at 1:00.7031 (105.919 mph) in the No. 15 Honda.
“It was a good start for us,” Rahal said. “To be back here, as Alex said, feels great. Such passionate fans. It’s always has been. Surprised when I strapped in, looked at the last turn to see how full the stands were. Thank you to everybody for coming out.
“It felt good to just be competitive again, to be honest. Right away from the first run I saw Felix went quickest, but I felt deep down that we had that sort of pace. The next round we were able to put it together a little more, got P1 for a minute. Felt good to have a car underneath me. Felt like I could attack a little bit.
“I’ve said this to a lot of people, I felt the Sebring test was quite good for us, it’s got us in a better direction here. It is only Friday, after all. But I thought we were quite good today.”
There are many great memories at Toronto for the Rahal family. Graham’s father and team owner, Bobby, drove to victory on the streets of Toronto in 1986 – the first year this event was held.
“I’ve got a lot of memories of coming here, enjoying Legoland when I was young,” Graham said. “I don’t even know if that’s around anymore. This has always been a beautiful place to come and race.
“Dad winning the first, clearly it means a lot to our family. Although I got to say I think my dad must have been good at first race weekends, Detroit, Cleveland, here. Everywhere there was a first, he seems to have won it.
“This place, it’s a great track. As we already said, the fans, man. I think the fans make this place and how special it is. It’s just a great city, too. You go downtown, it’s a lot of fun. We’ve missed it the last few years.
“But my memories go way, way back. It’s been cool to be able to race here as long as I have. Obviously, I haven’t won here. Sat at pole in Atlantics, on the front row here I think in ’17. I’ve been decent. This is a challenging place. As Alex said, if you don’t have a great car, it’s definitely not going to be your favorite. Obviously today, the two of us like it a lot. It’s a beautiful city. Great place to race.”
Rahal is the only one of the three drivers at RLL that has previously raced at Toronto. Only 12 of the 25 drivers in the field have previously competed in the Honda Indy Toronto.
“Jack Harvey has been to a lot of places like this, he’ll get up to speed pretty quick,” Rahal said. “I feel like Christian (Lundgaard) has done a great job this year preparing, showing up at places and being competitive. I think the Honda sim plus the static sim he has at home, the kid pours a ton of laps into this place. He’s been very good.”
This year’s Indianapolis 500 winner, Marcus Ericsson of Chip Ganassi Racing, was fourth at 1:00.7262 (105.879 mph) in the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Honda.
Josef Newgarden of Team Penske rounded out the top five in the No. 2 Chevrolet at 1:00.7650 (105.811 mph).
“That’s a pretty good start for us,” Newgarden said. “I didn’t really know what to expect, to be quite honest with you. It’s obviously been two years. Across our three cars, we had some different plans of attack. We all had sort of an idea of what we thought was going to happen today. It was very interesting to get out there and see what the track has been like after two years, two harsh winters.
“It was actually I thought pretty good grip. I was really surprised. The balance was more secure than I thought it was going to be. So not too dissimilar to ’19.
“I think it’s bumpier. There are definitely a couple sections maybe we can grind down to help with some of the bumps. They’re not in corners. The place I noticed the most was between six and eight, there’s a huge bump on the middle part of the straight.
“Other than that, it was smooth. I was actually really happy with my car. I thought towards the end of the session we got it really close, did a couple positive changes. I feel really good about going into tomorrow. Hopefully that bodes well for the weekend. Feeling relatively strong with the Hitachi Chevy car.”
As for Palou, whose week has been covered in great detail in two previous stories at SPEED SPORT, was 10th quick out of the 25 at 1:01.0522 (105.313 mph) in the No. 10 NTT DATA Honda.
IndyCar returns for practice Saturday at 10 a.m. Eastern Time with qualifications set for 2 p.m. ET.
The entire weekend, including Sunday’s race, will be streamed live on Peacock exclusively.