TORONTO -- Second place in Race 1 of the Honda Indy Toronto "feels like a win," says Sebastien Bourdais.

Bourdais, who is tied for seventh on the all-time Indy car victory list at 31, posted his highest finish since rejoining Indy car racing in 2011 and produced the best finish for Dragon Racing with second place in the 85-lap race on the 1.7-mile, 11-turn street circuit.

"We fought hard all day, took the lead," said Bourdais, who led 20 laps to increase his season total to 33. "A little surprised, but just super happy for the crew. I couldn't be any happier to finally get on that podium. We earned that second-place spot. We were the fast car. We fought with them all day. We stayed there. None of them had carnage or anything. We just happened to be fast and be able to fight with these guys."

Bourdais earned his fifth top-five finish at Toronto, including a victory in 2004.

"Toronto has been the turnaround of our season for the last two seasons," said Bourdais, who started fourth last year. "We needed it. Hopefully we can carry on the momentum for the rest of the season and score big and finish the season like this."

Bourdais, who earned his first front-row start of the season, will start seventh in Race 2. The standing start scheduled for Race 1 was aborted because the No. 67 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing car driven by Josef Newgarden stalled before all cars were in their staging areas. A standing start will be used for Race 2.

Conway makes up most positions

Mike Conway, the Race 1 winner of the early June doubleheader in Detroit, advanced 13 positions to finish seventh in the No. 18 Sonny's BBQ car for Dale Coyne Racing.

"We improved on things today and think there are a few more things we can pick up in the warm-up (July 14)," Conway said. "We were able to salvage some points, which was a good thing today. It will be tough starting at the back of the field in (Race 2), but I’m confident we can pull out another top 10 for Dale Coyne Racing.”

Simona De Silvestro moved up 12 spots relative to her starting position to finish 10th in the No. 78 Nuclear Entergy Areva car for KV Racing Technology. It was her first top 10 since Sao Paulo in early May. She qualified 10th for Race 2.

"It was a good recovery to where we were, starting way in the back," she said. "It was kind of a mess of a race; we stalled it in the pits once and we were really struggling at the beginning of the race. But toward the end we were pretty quick, so that was good. Because we’re going to be starting closer to the front, it’s even more important to have the Nuclear Clean Air Energy car dialed in from the start."

Of note

Ed Carpenter earned his best road/street course finish (13th) of the season in the No. 20 Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka car. ... Will Power has led laps in nine of the 12 races in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car. He led a field-high 29 in Race 1. ... There were eight lead changes. ... KV Racing Technology co-owner Jimmy Vasser had an X-ray of his back followinga hard landing in a Speed Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks series truck he was driving in practice with the intention of competing. Davey Hamilton took his place.