Defending champion Colton Herta has earned pole position at the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto.

He did the 11-turn, 2.874-kilometre course around Exhibition Place in downtown Toronto in 59.8320 seconds.

IndyCar Series points leader Alex Palou was second, 0.2758 seconds behind Herta.

Marcus Armstrong and Will Power were third and fourth respectively.

Scott Dixon, a four-time champion in Toronto, was 11th in qualifying but IndyCar announced Friday that he’d earned a six-position starting grid penalty for an unapproved engine change following last week’s race at Iowa Speedway. 

Dixon is second only to all-time great Michael Andretti’s seven wins around Exhibition Place.