Herta ends two-year win drought in red-flagged Toronto crash-fest · RaceFans

Colton Herta scored his first IndyCar victory in two years in an incident-filled Toronto race which ended with a spate of crashes.

The driver never put a wheel wrong as Andretti team mate Kyle Kirkwood chased him all the way home, the pair crossing the line covered by less than four-tenths of a second.

Herta retained his lead after a series of restarts, one of which followed a suspension of the race following a shocking crash involving five drivers.

Santino Ferrucci’s car was launched into the barrier after he struck the stationary machine of Pato O’Ward, who had spun and come to a stop at the exit of turn one. Marcus Ericsson and Pietro Fittipaldi had already hit the McLaren and Nolan Siegel dealt it a final blow.

The track was littered with debris, wrecked cars with Ferrucci’s resting on its roll hoop, and the red flag was inevitable. All the drivers were able to climb from their cars but a shocked O’Ward questioned why yellow flags had not been displayed sooner after his spin at the exit of a blind corner.

When the race resumed with 10 laps to go it swiftly turned sour for the Penske drivers. Will Power made a hopelessly ambitious lunge up the inside of Scott McLaughlin at turn five, dumping his team mate into the barrier and earning himself a penalty.

Meanwhile Josef Newgarden, who lost time with a slow pit stop earlier in the race, got too physical in his attempts to keep David Malukas behind and sustained a puncture. A further error at a later restart left him 11th on a day when only 15 cars were circulating at the chequered flag.

After the final restart Ganassi trio Scott Dixon, Alex Palou and Marcus Armstrong chased the Andrettis home. Palou was pleased to salvage fourth after a qualifying penalty meant he started from the ninth row.

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Malukas came in sixth after elbowing Newgarden aside, salvaging points for Meyer Shank after team mate Felix Rosenqvist retired following an incident with Ericsson at turn three. The former Formula 1 driver made a very late move to defend, sending both skidding into the escape road.

Romain Grosjean slipped back from fifth on the grid to finish ninth behind 2023 winner Christian Lundgaard and Rinus Veekay. Graham Rahal took 10th ahead of Newgarden.

Race result

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