Louis Foster was the class of the field Saturday at Markham. (Photo: Joe Skibinski | Penske Entertainment)
MARKHAM, Ontario — Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver Louis Foster claimed his second career NTT IndyCar Series pole ahead of Sunday’s inaugural Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at the new 2.19-mile track on the Streets of Markham.
The British driver set the early track record twice during the Firestone Fast Six, the first being 1:13.373, then he improved by a tenth of a second with a final lap time of 1:13.238. With about a minute and a half left on the clock, no other driver was able to knock Foster off the pole in Canada.
Foster's Pole-Winning Lap
The 23-year-old started the weekend on a high after finishing Practice 1 and Practice 2 in third and first, respectively. During the post-qualifying press conference, Foster shared that the new Markham Street Circuit was “fun,” and he was able to get up to speed with the Ontario track.
“I think we’ve been the lead car all weekend,” Foster said. “We started with a particular setup that Mick (Schumacher) and Graham (Rahal) migrated towards. So, I had time to adapt to mine. I like this track. It’s fun. I enjoy street circuits. It levels the playing field when we go to new tracks as we see time and time again.“From the get-go, I felt comfortable with the track. [The] car was on fire. It was a pole that I felt like Road America last year was a surprise; this one isn’t as much of a surprise, seeing FP1 and FP2, where we were.”
Foster’s mindset heading into the Firestone Fast Six
After a stellar start to the race weekend, “a massive mistake” almost ended Louis Foster’s qualifying early. However, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver advanced to Fast Six, enraged in the cockpit.
“To be honest with you, I drove Fast Six pretty pissed off because we made a massive mistake in Fast 12,” Foster said. “I got through by a bee’s tail, nothing. We should have cleared that easily. I was pretty annoyed. I was driving with a bit of a rage.”
The 2025 Rookie of the Year capitalized on his rage to make the Fast Six work in his favor. Although Foster was on used red tires, he used all of the grip he had to achieve the track lap record twice in one session.
“That was damn good as well, to be honest with you, it just clicked,” Foster added. “As soon as I did my first couple corners, I was expecting the (indiscernible) to have faded a little bit. I could feel they were still there. Just the heat soak, it cooled down over the five minutes, whatever we had, and stiffened them up a little bit.
“It felt good. I had no dramas. The tires didn’t fall off too bad. Like I said, I was expecting less grip than I had. Yeah, pretty much every corner was damn perfect on that lap. There really wasn’t much more in it.”
Foster’s No. 45 Desnuda Organic Tequila Honda will lead the field to green in the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham on Sunday afternoon in Canada, with coverage beginning at Noon ET on FOX.