The 2001 Molson Indy Toronto was a Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) motor race held on July 15, 2001, at the Exhibition Place circuit in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was the tenth round of the 2001 CART season, the 16th annual edition of the Molson Indy Toronto, and the first of two events that were held in Canada. The 95-lap race was won by Team Motorola driver Michael Andretti, who started from the 13th position. Alex Tagliani finished second for the Forsythe Racing team, and Fernández Racing driver Adrián Fernández came in third.
Gil de Ferran won the pole position and maintained his lead throughout the race's first half. Andretti made contact with Scott Dixon on the first lap and made a pit stop along with a change of strategy to move up the field. Hélio Castroneves took over the lead after de Ferran made a pit stop for fuel and held it for 15 laps before he retired with a mechanical issue. Fernández and Tony Kanaan held the first position over the next seven laps. Andretti moved into first place on the 71st lap and maintained the position to win the race.
There were eleven cautions and four lead changes by five different drivers during the course of the race. It was Andretti's first (and only) victory of the season, his seventh at Toronto, and the 41st of his career. The result advanced Andretti to second in the Drivers' Championship, ten points behind leader Kenny Bräck, while Castroneves fell to third place, with eleven races left in the season. Approximately 73,628 people attended the event, which attracted 726,000 television viewers in the United States.
Background The Molson Indy Toronto was confirmed as part of CART's 2001 series' schedule in August 2000. It was the sixteenth consecutive year the race was held in the series, and the first of two races that were held in Canada. The Molson Indy Toronto was the tenth of 21 scheduled races for 2001 by CART, and was held on July 15. Prior to the race, Team Rahal driver Kenny Bräck led the Drivers' Championship with 83 points, 13 ahead of Hélio Castroneves in second, with Dario Franchitti third. Gil de Ferran was fourth on 56 points, one in front of Cristiano da Matta in fifth. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Honda led with 136 points; Toyota was a close second with 132, followed by Ford Cosworth with 114.
Franchitti was considered one of the favorites to win the race having won the event two years previously and hoped to keep a recent string of good results in the 2001 season going at the track. Bräck expected to perform well despite retiring from the previous year's event and hoped he could regain the momentum he built from the start of the season. The race's defending champion Michael Andretti had secured six of his 40 career victories in Toronto and stated that he did not know if luck played a part but noted his driving style was suited to the circuit. Having finished in the points-scoring position in three of the previous four races, Alex Tagliani said it encouraged him heading into the Indy Toronto.
Practice There were two 75-minute practice sessions preceding Sunday's race. A test session, scheduled for Friday afternoon, ran for 90 minutes. Conditions were dry for the Friday practice sessions. De Ferran was fastest in the first practice session with a lap of 59.107 seconds; his teammate Castroneves was second. Tony Kanaan, Jimmy Vasser, Tagliani, Christian Fittipaldi, Da Matta, Patrick Carpentier, Franchitti and Paul Tracy were in third to tenth places. Four red flags came out: the first came when a fuel cover from Carpentier's car was located on the racing line, The second was for Bruno Junqueira' spin in turn eight and stalled on track, the third for Andretti who struck the turn eight tire barrier and damaged his left-front suspension; Bräck went onto the turn's run-off area to avoid hitting Andretti. The final stoppage was for de Ferran who slid into the turn one tire barrier and damaged his car's front.
In the second practice session, a further four stoppages occurred; Alex Zanardi slid and made light contact with the turn eight tire barrier and did not restart, metal debris was spotted in between turns three and four, Max Wilson stalled his car after he spun in the third turn, and Franchitti and Memo Gidley made contact in turn five and the latter was sent into the tire barrier which heavily damaged his right-hand suspension while Franchitti's right-front wheel broke. De Ferran set the fastest lap of the day with a time of 58.400 seconds, ahead of Fittipaldi and Franchitti. Kanaan was fourth-fastest; ahead of Andretti and his teammate Tracy. Da Matta, Tagliani, Max Papis and Adrián Fernández followed in the top ten. Shinji Nakano lapped fastest in the final practice session with a time of 58.133 seconds; Kanaan, Junqueira, De Ferran, Andretti, da Matta. Oriol Servià, Bryan Herta, Fernández and Maurício Gugelmin completed the top ten. The session was stopped four times: firstly for Vasser who stalled on the circuit; the second for Kanaan because his engine failed heading towards the start-finish line, the third was for Bräck who slid and hit the turn eight outside tire wall with his left front wheel and his suspension was broken. The final red-flag was for Vasser who locked his brakes and spun 360 degrees onto turn eight's run-off area.
Qualifying Saturday afternoon's 75-minute qualifying session saw cars split into two groups with the leading championship point-standing leaders and the fastest two drivers from the previous road course race composing the second group. Both groups were allowed 30 minutes on the circuit with a 15-minute interval in between the two groups recording their lap times. Under warm weather conditions, De Ferran clinched his first pole position of the season, his second at Toronto, and the twelfth of his career with a time of 57.703 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by teammate Castroneves who had the pole position until de Ferran's lap. Bräck qualified third, Kanaan fourth and Tagliani fifth (all three drivers went onto the track's run-off areas but continued without damage to their cars.) Franchitti, Fernández, Tracy, Roberto Moreno and Scott Dixon rounded out the top ten qualifiers. Servià was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten; his best lap was 0.534 seconds off de Ferran's pace. He was followed by Carpentier in twelfth. Andretti, 13th, slid and hit the turn one tire barrier lightly with the left front section of his nose cone; he later contacted the turn five wall with his right-rear tire on his final timed lap. Fittipaldi took 14th position, ahead of Herta who spun at turn nine without damaging his car. Vasser, da Matta, Michel Jourdain Jr., Gugelmin, Junqueira, Papis and Tora Takagi filled the next seven places on the grid. 23rd-place qualifier Gidley made contact with Carpentier who was braking heavily for the turn eight right-hander and Gidley damaged his front suspension heavily with his front wheels out of line. Both drivers were unhurt. Zanardi took 24th position. Wilson and Nakano qualified at the back of the grid in 25th and 26th places; Wilson closely followed Nakano on his first timed lap, made heavy contact with the rear-left of Nakano's car and went airborne briefly. Both drivers were uninjured but switched to their back-up cars as their primary chassis were heavily damaged.
Qualifying classification + Qualifying results Driver Team Time 1 1 Team Penske 57.703 109.472 — 2 3 Team Penske 57.767109.370 +0.064 3 8 Team Rahal 57.886109.146 +0.183 4 55 Mo Nunn Racing 57.923109.076 +0.230 5 33 Forsythe Racing 57.997108.937 +0.294 6 27 Team Green 58.109108.727 +0.402 7 51 Fernández Racing 58.128108.691 +0.425 8 26 Team Green 58.161108.629 +0.458 9 20 Patrick Racing 58.195108.566 +0.492 10 18 PacWest Racing 58.224108.512 +0.521 11 22 Sigma Autosport 58.237108.488 +0.534 12 32 Forsythe Racing 58.245108.473 +0.542 13 39 Team Motorola 58.260108.445 +0.557 14 11 Newman/Haas Racing 58.279108.410 +0.576 15 77 Forsythe Racing 58.372108.237 +0.659 16 40 Patrick Racing 58.390108.203 +0.687 17 6 Newman/Haas Racing 58.476108.044 +0.763 18 16 Bettenhausen Racing 58.588107.838 +0.855 19 17 PacWest Racing 58.601107.814 +0.898 20 4 Chip Ganassi Racing 58.609107.799 +0.903 21 7 Team Rahal 58.681107.667 +0.978 22 5 Walker Racing 58.760107.522 +1.067 23 12 Chip Ganassi Racing 58.778107.489 +1.075 24 66 Mo Nunn Racing 58.945107.185 +1.243 25 25 Arciero-Blair Racing 59.092106.918 +1.389 26 52 Fernández Racing 59.488106.206 +1.645
Warm-up The drivers took to the track at 9:00 a.m. local time for a 30-minute warm-up session where several drivers ran onto the track's run-off areas. Kanaan continued his good performance and recorded the fastest time of 59.869 seconds. Herta, Fernández, Bräck and de Ferran made up second to fifth places. Fernández locked his brakes and struck the turn five tire wall, stopping the session for three minutes to allow course officials to remove his car from the barrier. Franchitti and Junqueira made contact at the pit lane entrance but both drivers continued without any apparent damage.
Race Weather conditions for the start of the race were sunny but partly cloudy with an air temperature between and a track temperature ranging from . Approximately 73,628 people attended the event. The race started at 1:04 p.m. de Ferran maintained his pole position advantage heading into the first turn. Kanaan was passed by Franchitti for fourth place on the backstretch. Entering the third corner, Andretti made contact with the side of Dixon which meant Andretti narrowly avoided hitting the outside wall. Fernández and Tracy made contact in turn five. The first caution of the race was prompted on the second lap when Andretti stalled and safety officials had to restart his car. Andretti chose to make a pit stop for fuel following a decision made by his team manager Kim Green. At the lap four restart, de Ferran maintained his lead over teammate Castroneves. On the following lap, Moreno spun in turn five and stalled in the centre of the track, triggering the second caution. Dixon spun to avoid hitting Moreno while da Matta and Vasser both stopped and made light contact with the front-ends of their cars. Vasser retired from the race because of the collision. de Ferran maintained his lead at the lap eight restart.
The third caution was given on lap ten; Tracy glanced the rear-right wheel of Servià's car heading into turn three which caused both drivers to spin and stall. De Ferran led at the lap-12 restart, ahead of Bräck and Franchitti. Bräck was overtaken by Franchitti for second place around the outside of the third turn on lap 18, while Tagliani passed Kanaan at the same corner one lap later. De Ferran continued to pull away from the rest of the field and held a 7.5 second lead over Franchitti by the 30th lap. The fourth caution came out two laps later when Takagi made contact with the side of Wilson at the entrance of turn three. Both cars spun with Takagi going into the outside tire barrier and Wilson went onto the run-off area with a broken suspension. Franchitti drove onto the turn six run-off area to retire with an oil pressure problem on the same lap caused by a lack of oil in his car. During the caution, most of the field made pit stops. Dixon moved from 17th to fifth and Junqueira went from 18th to seventh position because they made pit stops before the caution was displayed. Andretti moved up from 15th to tenth place. De Ferran led the lap-37 restart, and was followed by Tagliani, Bräck, Castroneves and Dixon.