Marcus Ericsson earns first win with Andretti Global at Markham
MARKHAM, On. — Marcus Ericsson earns his first win with Andretti Global in the inaugural NTT INDYCAR Series race on the Streets of Markham for the Ontario Honda Dealers INDY at Markham.
This is his fifth career INDYCAR victory and his 12th podium overall.
Street courses are a strength of Ericsson. The Swede loves to show his prowess of finding speed on a brand new circuit which held true once more here at Markham.
He caught up to speed faster than the course was built and found himself into the Firestone Fast Six for his efforts. Ericsson was unable to grab pole but came away with a great starting position on the second row from fourth.
With that grid slot, he maintained his top five position until the first caution of the day for Mick Schumacher started the strategy shifts.
The slew of yellow flags in the middle of the 90-lap event further disrupted any relevance of a primary strategy. This found Ericsson with a unique opportunity to lead the race with 38 laps remaining with a pit stop still to go.
From there he took off. On average, a team would lose 21 seconds from a green flag pit stop. Needing to create as large of a gap as possible, Ericsson took off. He turned the next ten laps into a ualifying session and bridged around 16 seconds back to second place.
After a tidy pit stop, he came back out in sixth-place only around six second back from the lead. With a full tank and fresh tires he surgically picked through the pack.
He heroically passed his teammate Will Power with a tire-banging move in the hairpin. Then got around Alex Palou and the leader Romain Grosjean with ease with under five laps remaining to cruise to his victory.
Ericsson led 21 laps in his win. His status as a lead in 2026 has been underrated. He as led the third most laps of any driver this season behind Alex Palou and Christian Lundgaard and finally gets on the top step of the podium in Canada.
The Top Ten
For the sixth time in his INDYCAR career, Romain Grosjean played bridesmaid. The open-wheel veteran earns his first podium of the season. But, he will have to wait once again for his first win of any kind since 2011.
Will Power demonstrated one of his best drives of the season in his last to third effort. Power crushed the competition restarts on gambled on the correct strategy like his victorious teammate.
Alex Palou started outside the top ten for the first time in 30 events but held second in the closing laps before falling to fourth.
Pato O’Ward rounded out the top five. he started back in 19th and picked off drivers with precision for his placement.
Christian Lundgaard followed his Arrow McLaren teammate for most of the day. It worked out well for him as he finished behind him in sixth.
Then, Rinus VeeKay continued his fantastic momentum at Markham. He qualified inside the top sixth once again which netted a top ten from seventh after dealing with front wing damage for much of the race.
Graham Rahal qualified and finished ninth for a much needed solid top ten weekend.
Finally, Santino Ferrucci snuck into the top ten in tenth after all the carnage throughout the event.
Notable Results
Sting Ray Robb narrowly missed out on his first top ten of season from 11th. Then, Nolan Siegel found himself at the front for eight laps and finished behind Robb in 12th.
The Streets of Markham, Ontario were not forgiving as everyone had issues from 13th on down.
Crucially, their were massive championship complications for second and third in the standings. Kyle Kirkwood crashed out of the event from the top five to DNF in 21st. Then late in the race, David Malukas found the outside wall inside the top ten and finished a lap down in 17th.
Finally, what a day it could have been for the polesitter Louis Foster. Foster led a race-high 32 laps from the start but an unfortunate caution derailed his afternoon. The Brit with the most made the most of his lost track position as he stormed through the top ten in the ensuing laps.
His pass on the eventual winner Marcus Ericsson proved too costly. Foster nicked the inside wall for a heartbreaking end to what could have been a career weekend for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver.
Foster went from contending for a maiden win to a DNF in 22nd. He will not have to wait long to take on a street course again.
They will do battle once again at a brand new street circuit this coming weekend as the series returns stateside. The highly anticipated Freedom 250 awaits the drivers from Washington D.C.
Below are the full results of the Ontario Dealers Hondy INDY at Markham.
Full Results
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Ryan Kemna View All
Ryan Kemna is a photojournalist for The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2025.
Currently residing in the Minneapolis, MN, area, Kemna brings his passion for motorsports, photography, and a good story to readers.