Alex Palou will start the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway from pole position. The IndyCar championship leader delivered an extremely fast qualifying run, clocking in more than one mile per hour quicker than the rest of the field. David Malukas will start alongside Palou on the front row, while Kyle Kirkwood and Felix Rosenqvist will occupy the second row.

Mick Schumacher sets early pace

Qualifying was run in reverse order of entrant points, effectively mirroring the championship standings. This meant Mick Schumacher was the first driver to take to the track for his qualifying run. The German posted an average speed of 170.290 mph, which held up for quite some time until teammate Louis Foster went out and was over 0.3 mph quicker.

The next driver on track was Will Power, who came into the session with a record four pole positions at this track. However, Power struggled heavily with his car and could do no better than fifth among the first eight drivers. As the tenth driver to run, Santino Ferrucci then went over 0.4 mph faster to take over the top spot.

Kyffin Simpson followed by going another 0.2 mph quicker, making the Chip Ganassi Racing driver the first to break the 171 mph barrier. But there was still more speed to come, as ECR driver Alexander Rossi made a big jump by going another 0.8 mph faster.

Scott Dixon first into the 172 mph range

As the fifteenth driver on track, Scott Dixon went another 0.5 mph faster than Rossi, before Marcus Armstrong — also running with Chip Ganassi Racing equipment — edged him by 0.005 mph.

Chip Ganassi Racing, together with Meyer Shank Racing, showed the pace to fight for pole, but what about Team Penske? Josef Newgarden opened with the fastest first lap, but lost too much speed on his second lap and had to settle for third behind Armstrong and Dixon.

Scott McLaughlin went even faster than Newgarden on his first lap, but like his teammate, he suffered a significant drop-off on lap two. Still, his first-lap speed was enough to take over the top spot by 0.4 mph.

Intense fight for pole position

As qualifying progressed, ambient temperatures continued to drop, and with increasing cloud cover, track temperatures fell as well. This made the track faster and faster. The next driver to capitalize was Indy 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist, who went 0.1 mph quicker than McLaughlin.

Could it go even faster? McLaren drivers Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard were unable to match the top times, after which David Malukas was the final Penske driver to complete his qualifying run. The young American, like McLaughlin, delivered a very strong first lap but ran slightly high in Turn 2. Despite that, it was enough for the fastest time. With an average speed of 173.244 mph, he even became the first driver to break the 173 mph barrier.

Kyle Kirkwood then came up just short of Malukas’ time, leaving one final driver on track: championship leader Alex Palou. Palou opened with a lap nearly one mile per hour faster than Malukas, and backed it up on his second lap. With a massive margin of more than one mile per hour, he secured pole position in dominant fashion.

Full results of the qualifying session at Gateway