"We definitely gave away pole" says frustrated Kyle Kirkwood after IndyCar Toronto qualifying

Andretti driver, Kyle Kirkwood, seemed certain that, without a snap of oversteer, we would be celebrating his pole position rather than Colton Herta's after qualifying at the Indy Toronto on Saturday.

On his outlap for his final run, Kirkwood suffered a snap of oversteer which ruined his preparations. Darting into the pits for more fuel, he then missed the cut-off to set his final lap times which meant Herta had no competition for pole and set the only minus one minute lap time of the session.

Kirkwood failed to set a single flying lap time in the Fast Six which means his recorded best lap is a 1:04.5 which is over five seconds off Herta's 0:59.4.

Out of the car and back near in the paddock, Kirkwood spoke to FS1 and confidently explained: “We definitely just gave away a pole without a doubt.

“It's happened to me where I just got a huge snap there. It's been under steering and one time I go through there for when it matters for pole and it bottoms and I get a huge snap.

“It just feels like I'm throwing [them] away. Throwing away poles left and right on street courses.

“That one didn't feel very good if I'm being honest. So we'll get back, we'll look at it, figure out exactly what happened. 

In a run of bad luck, Kirkwood has seen any hope of a championship fight for him fade away as Alex Palou and Chip Ganassi continue an unprecedented run of results.

Going into Iowa in second in the championship, a poor qualifying mixed with tyre failure in the synk 275 and a 18th place finish in Farm to Finish 275 means he is now fourth behind Synk 275 winner, Pato O'Ward, and Mid-Ohio winner, Scott Dixon.

With Andretti looking much quicker in Toronto, Kirkwood looked ready to take another pole this season after achieving his first in Long Beach.

Disappointment, Kirkwood was able to show some happiness that at least it was his Andretti teammate that took pole and that he didn't lose the team the start position they had expected out of Practice 2 where they had shown a dominant car.

Speaking on his teammate, Kirkwood said: At least someone made up for it with Colton getting the pole there. Super happy for the team [and] happy for the 26 car, but [I'm] very, very disappointed with that performance there in Fast Six.

"I tried to come into the pit lane as I knew the lap was already shot. was just like 'can we get fuel in and try and go out for another?'. They're like, 'no'.

"In hindsight, that was the best idea to get [and] go for the pole but that just cost us probably an extra few positions just because I didn't even do a lap."

There is some reconciliation for Kirkwood as he wasn't the slowest Andretti today with Marcus Ericsson struggling again.

Faced with problems even before the session as his mechanics rushed to fix a brake issue, The Swedish driver managed to get through Group Two before he was then eliminated in Round Two and will start eighth.

While not a bad position, his final lap time was nearly two seconds off Herta's.