Exciting Weekend at Ontario Honda Dealers Indy

MARKHAM, Canada (August 16, 2026) — The Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham weekend had a rocky start due to some track build delays, but the race today thrilled the thousands of fans who attended this first-ever event at the brand-new street circuit. As is often the case with debut races, it was quite chaotic and full of unexpected moments, culminating in an impressive performance by Marcus Ericsson who took home the win.

The race faced six cautions – five due to crashes into the walls – which caused slowdowns for 25 laps. Ferrucci managed to steer clear of trouble despite a few close encounters.

Having struggled in practice and facing an unfortunate red flag during qualifying, Santino Ferrucci started from 21st position but moved up to 18th in the No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet after several teams received engine change penalties that bumped them back on the grid. Taking advantage of others’ misfortunes, quick pit stops, and a solid strategy, Ferrucci climbed to ninth place as the final laps approached. However, he had to conserve fuel to reach the finish line and ended up finishing in 10th after running out just past it.

“A very solid day for us in the Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet,” said Ferrucci. “Strategy was really good. I wouldn’t say we were either unlucky or lucky. We just drove a really hard race, made a fuel number, and we had good pace. Pit crew was fantastic all day. We didn’t really get any full [field] yellow stops, so I don’t know if we jumped anybody, but we definitely didn’t lose any ground. That’s for sure, which is awesome. You know the momentum that the guys have had has been phenomenal. I think our team did a great job with the car all weekend from getting unlucky in qualifying, and yeah, I wish we had a little bit more there at the end to get a little deeper into the top-10, but we will walk away with a solid top-10 today.”

It was an eventful weekend for Ferrucci’s teammate Caio Collet who showed impressive speed in his No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet when practice began yesterday. He finished first practice as second fastest among 25 cars and remained competitive in practice two until he spun off while trying to dodge another car that was stalled on track.

His crew worked hard alongside mechanics from Ferrucci’s team to fix significant damage before qualifying time arrived. They made it out just in time; however, fuel pressure issues halted him on track during qualifying which led to another red flag and dropped him towards back of his group. Although slated for a starting position of 23rd due to penalties, he ended up starting from 19th.

During lap one Collet collided with Felix Rosenqvist resulting in Rosenqvist having a punctured tire while Collet suffered damage including broken parts on his left rear wheel assembly. He lost 17 laps fixing his car partly because work had to pause during caution periods when other cars pitted as well. Once rejoining after repairs amidst crashing competitors throughout the thrilling 90-lap race; Collet managed to gain six spots finishing at position 19.

“I have to see my onboard [camera] footage along with video review,” Collet commented about what happened during his incident.”I did have contact with number sixty – Rosenqvist – but I’ll need clarity on it since there wasn’t much room leading us both into breaking parts requiring fixes afterward plus trying hard later picking up positions lost earlier through incidents or mechanical failures elsewhere across opponents throughout our run together! It felt frustrating since our pace looked promising right from early practices intending fight strongly upfront yet fell short executing effectively overall.”

Ericsson claimed lead within last five laps denying Romain Grosjean chance scoring first victory ever competing under Indy Car rules rounding off top-five placements occupied by Will Power Alex Palou Pato O’Ward!

NTT INDYCAR Series heads Washington D. C Freedom Grand Prix set broadcast next Sunday through FOX channel starting pre-race show timely scheduled around eleven-thirty AM eastern standard time racing coverage commencing thereafter one PM ET!

Santino pushes his vehicle towards safety post-race due lack sufficient fuel supply shortly following crossing finish line!

Source link