(pictured in 2005) had the twelfth pole position of his career. 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. 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. 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 }|GBR}} ==Warm-up==