IndyCar News: Herta tops opening practice, Rossi breaks thumb

Alexander Rossi will not be driving this weekend.  His crash in practice resulted in a broken right thumb.   Tony Kanaan might be taking his place but Arrow McLaren has not released who will be driving the No 7 entry yet.

“First of all, I’m very thankful for all the men and women on the INDYCAR medical team and for all the great work they do,” Rossi said after being examined and released at the INDYCAR Medical Unit. “I do have a broken right thumb.

“It’s unfortunate because the injury occurred when I almost made it around the corner and I didn’t want to give up on it, so I didn’t quite get my hands off the wheel in time. However, everyone seems optimistic about the kind of injury it is. We’re going to take the next steps here and get ready for Gateway.”

The team says it does not expect to have an update this evening on who will run the No. 7 the rest of this weekend. Will likely come ahead of Saturday morning’s practice that starts at 10:30am ET.

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Andretti Global Driver Colton Herta turned a lap of 1m01.8906s to lead opening practice of the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto IndyCar car on the streets around Exhibition Place.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Ganassi Honda driver Alex Palou was 2nd quick, 0.1898s behind Herta.

Former Ganassi driver Felix Rosenqvist was 3rd quick in his Meyer Shank Honda, 0.35s behind Herta.

Alex Palou’s Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon was 4th, 0.38s behind Herta while Alexander Rossi was the fastest Chevy driver in 5th before he wadded up his Arrow McLaren Chevy.

Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson lost his Honda engine early in the session.  Luckily it was only his third engine, so no grid penalty.

Alexander Rossi made contact with the tire barrier in Turn 9 during the Group 2 practice, resulting in a six minutes red flag.

Ganassi Racing’s Linus Lindqvist made a mistake and buried his car into the tire barrier in Turn 8 with seven minutes to go in the ten minute session.  The red flag resulted in a early end to the Group 2 session, leaving the drivers with about eight minutes of practice.

Rossi and Lindqvist were both seen and released by the INDYCAR Medical Unit.

Practice 1 Results

(R) Rookie

Lucille Dust reporting live from Toronto