Palou parade rolls on with Indy GP pole

Alex Palou and the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda team have made the Indianapolis Grand Prix their personal playground in recent years and they’ve set themselves up for the trend to continue after the Spaniard rocketed to pole position for the Sonsio GP and cleared the field by a ridiculous margin of 0.5475s.

As the winner of the last three races on the Indy road course, Palou being fastest was far from a surprise after posting a top lap of 1m09.7487s to capture his third straight pole at the event. But the run for pole came at a cost; he was one of only two drivers to bolt on new Firestone alternate compound tires to extract maximum performance from the car.

“It's tough to get the car in good windows, like these guys been doing,” Palou said. “Very happy to get that No. 10 on the pole once again. Here feels really, really good. The car was, was amazing. I think not everybody was running on the new alternate, so I know we're going to be on a small disadvantage on the race, but still happy – happy that we’re starting on the front row and see we can win that with that No. 10.”

Next to him on the front row, it was Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Chevy whose overnight resurgence was remarkable. O’Ward also made use of new alternates, but was unable to match Palou (1m10.2962s).

“My team turned it around for me, so I’ve got to thank them, I really do” O’Ward said. “I think yesterday was a perfect example. When it’s not working, it doesn’t matter how hard you try, you just can’t get it there, unless you at least get it into the window of performance. We did that today. I want to thank my teammates as well. They found stuff that has obviously helped me today. It was a collaborative team effort to really turn it around from where we were yesterday.”

Felix Rosenqvist in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda – polesitter at the most recent race in Long Beach – was third (1m10.4548s). O’Ward’s teammate Christian Lundgaard was fourth in the No. 7 Chevy (1m10.4751s).

"A little disappointed,” he said. “I think we expected a little more. We were much better at at the end of P2 yesterday, and I think it got our got our hopes high. Obviously, it's good for the 5 car to turn things around. So proud of that group. We need to see later today, but the No. 10 car is so fast. We have two cars up there, so hopefully we can put up a fight from there."

David Malukas led Team Penske by claiming fifth with the No. 12 Chevy (1m10.5660s).

“We've been struggling with pace this whole weekend and we put our heads down,” he said. “Right before we went out I was looking at so many videos and trying to figure out a strategy. That lap was perfect. We got the setup as close as we can be. We're still lacking to some of these guys, but for us that is amazing.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Louis Foster completed the Firestone Fast Six in the No. 45 Honda as the 2024 Indy NXT champion had an encouraging qualifying run for the first time since the start of the season.

The session to set the starting order for this afternoon’s 85-lap race also had its fair share of odd results as Andretti Global were off the mark with pace or good fortune as Kyle Kirkwood landed in ninth after encountering traffic on his best lap; teammates Marcus Ericsson (P14) and Will Power (P25) have even more work to do in the race. Penske’s Scott McLaughlin also left the session with a lot of passing to complete after running 17th.

The opening phase of knockout qualifying pitted 12 drivers against each other and the six who transferred were led by Kirkwood, followed by Dixon, O’Ward, Rahal, Josef Newgarden and Caio Collet. Done on the spot were Alexander Rossi who’ll start P13, then Santino Ferrucci (P15), a surprised McLaughlin (P17), Christian Rasmussen (P19), Rinus VeeKay (P21), and Sting Ray Robb (P23).

The second phase of qualifying gathered the other 13 drivers, and the transferring six were led by Palou, Malukas, Rosenqvist, Foster, Romain Grosjean and Lundgaard. Those who failed to transfer contained some major surprises led by Ericsson (P14), Nolan Siegel (P16), Mick Schumacher (P18), Marcus Armstrong (P20), Kyffin Simpson (P22), Dennis Hauger (P24) and Power (P25).

The Firestone Fast 12 provided more surprises as Palou led O’Ward, Lundgaard, Rosenqvist, Foster, and Malukas while Rahal – a rocket in qualifying here last year – was the first driver out (P7). Dixon (P8), a frustrated Kirkwood who said he was impeded (P9), Newgarden (P10), former GP polesitter Grosjean (P11), and Collet (P12) were locked in for the race.

UP NEXT: Race, 4:57pm ET approximate green flag.

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