Palou Dominates to Take Pole Position for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis

Alex Palou has dominated qualifying to secure pole position for the Sonsio Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver was the fastest in every segment, and as the only driver in the Fast 6 with a fresh set of soft tires left, he set a time that was four-tenths of a second quicker than the competition. Graham Rahal qualified in second, ahead of Louis Foster and Scott McLaughlin.

Before the start of qualifying, the talk of the day was likely the division of the qualifying groups. The groups were based on the results of the second practice session, but it was clear that the second group was much stronger than the first — with all three Penske drivers, two RLL drivers, two McLaren drivers, Alex Palou, Scott Dixon, and Rinus VeeKay all in that group.

With races this year being run without neutralizations, qualifying has become significantly more important than in previous years. Additionally, teams only have four sets of soft tires available this weekend instead of the usual five. As a result, some drivers were using soft tires for the first time in qualifying and even used two sets just to make it through the first part of qualifying.

In the first qualifying group, Pato O’Ward set the fastest time, ahead of Alexander Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist, while Alex Palou posted the quickest lap in the second group, ahead of a very surprising Devlin DeFrancesco and Will Power. Several notable names failed to make it into the second qualifying segment, including all three Andretti Global drivers (Colton Herta 13th, Marcus Ericsson 20th, and Kyle Kirkwood 21st), Scott Dixon (16th), and Christian Lundgaard (14th).

In the second segment, the strength of the second qualifying group became clear: five of the six fastest drivers from this group also made it into the Firestone Fast 6. Once again, Palou was the fastest, ahead of the RLL trio of Graham Rahal, Louis Foster, and Devlin DeFrancesco.

As if it wasn’t already clear after Palou’s two fastest laps who would take pole position, the Spaniard had another advantage: he was the only driver who could still mount a fresh set of soft tires. Graham Rahal set the fastest time on used tires, but Palou still had to make his run. Palou made a small mistake in his first lap, but in his second and final lap, he struck hard, going four-tenths of a second faster than Rahal to secure his second pole position of the season.

Full results of the 1st qualifying session on Indianapolis Road Course