Kiwi rookie Hunter McElrea had a decent first drive on an IndyCar race weekend as Colton Herta topped practice at Toronto.
Herta set the benchmark of 01:01.0399 around the streets of Toronto and showed ominous form in the Andretti machine.
He enjoyed a three-tenth advantage over Felix Rosenqvist, while Marcus Armstrong and Scott Dixon showed strong pace to be in the top four.
On debut McElrea had a decent start and ended up 18th as the second fastest rookie.
Scott McLaughlin could not unlock the ultimate pace but did enough to sneak into the top 10 with ninth.
Australia’s Will Power had a tough session and ended up 15th after a spin at Turn 9.
Agustin Canapino also spun at Turn 8 while Alex Rossi and Linus Lundqvist hit the tyre barrier in nearly the same fashion in incidents that ended things early.
Rossi suffered a broken right thumb, knocking the 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner out of the weekend’s race.
“Overall, the car was really nice,” said Herta.
“(It) feels like the same car that we brought last two years, which we’ve had podium results. And so hopefully that bodes well for us.”
