Stefan earned his second Force For Earth Hard Charger Award for his spirited fightback from an early mishap to finish fifth on the streets of Toronto. He also set the fastest lap in the race.

The weekend began badly for Stefan as he had to sit out half of Friday's practice session after his car suffered a broken driveshaft. Saturday morning practice was better, but trouble struck again in the afternoon's qualifying session, just as Stefan was on a move up the timesheet. Missing the final minutes of the session meant that he qualified only 10th.

The race went green and, in the jostling for position, Stefan slipped back a place, but he regained it on lap five when Martin Plowman mad contact with James Winslow and had to pit for repairs. Dodging flying debris from Plowman's car, Stefan pursued Winslow and soon attempted a pass into turn 3, but the move didn't come off and he ended up in the run-off area. By the time he got back into the race he was 14th - but that was the starting point for a remarkable comeback drive.

The timing display told the story as Stefan repeatedly hunted down and passed cars ahead. On successive laps he overtook Rodrigo Barbosa and Carmen Jorda, and then gained another place when Philip Major went into the tyres. Stefan was now 11th.

With his car handling well, Stefan banged in his fastest times, cutting the gap to Pippa Mann by one and a half seconds a lap and setting the fastest lap of the race in the process. A caution period closed the gap to nothing and shortly after the restart Stefan passed Mann to go into the top 10. He gained three more places as Winslow and Adrián Campos Jr collided and his team-mate Sebastián Saavedra retired with a gearbox problem.

It took Stefan 10 more laps to find a way past Tonis Kasemets and he then charged up behind Charlie Kimball, but there was no time left to overtake. He was gifted another place, though, when James Hinchcliffe crashed out, and he crossed the line fifth. The race was won by points leader JK Vernay.

After the race Stefan had a big smile on his face. "That was a lot of fun," he said. "It's been a difficult weekend. The times were just not there, we were struggling with car set-up issues, so we were working all last night trying to get it handling well, and in the race all that came together. I'm really pleased with the effort of the number 28 Bryan Herta Autosport guys. We never stopped fighting."

He continued: "What I enjoy most from racing is overtaking and I was able to do a lot of that today. I'm really pleased to come away with a good haul of points from what was looking like a disappointing weekend."

Stefan is still lying sixth in the championship.