Scott McLaughlin pulled off a major surprise by taking pole position for the Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey at Laguna Seca. After Palou had dominated qualifying, the New Zealander edged the 2026 IndyCar champion by two hundredths of a second in the Firestone Fast Six to claim pole. Felix Rosenqvist and Alexander Rossi will start from the second row, with David Malukas and Kyle Kirkwood lining up on the third row.

Palou dominates first two segments

The first group showed just how tight the field is this weekend. The gap between the fastest and seventh-fastest times was just 0.145 seconds. David Malukas topped the first group ahead of Scott McLaughlin, Kyle Kirkwood, Alexander Rossi, Louis Foster and Kyffin Simpson. Pato O’Ward was left with the unenviable seventh position, while drivers such as Scott Dixon and Rinus VeeKay also failed to advance to the Fast 12.

The gaps were considerably larger in the second qualifying group, with Alex Palou already holding a one-tenth-of-a-second advantage over the rest of the field at the top of the order. Marcus Ericsson posted the second-fastest time, ahead of Felix Rosenqvist, Marcus Armstrong, a surprising Caio Collet and Christian Lundgaard. The biggest surprise among those who failed to advance was Will Power, who finished seventh in the group.

In the second qualifying segment, Palou continued where he left off, once again becoming the only driver to post a 1:09.1 and building a one-tenth-of-a-second gap over the competition. This time, McLaughlin led the chasing pack, ahead of Malukas, Lundgaard, a surprising Rossi and Rosenqvist. Of the three drivers battling for second place in the championship, only Kirkwood failed to advance, finishing seventh. However, Lundgaard will receive a six-place grid penalty, allowing Kirkwood to start sixth.

Unexpectedly tight battle for pole

Given Palou’s dominance in the first two segments, pole position seemed almost certain for the Ganassi Racing driver. On his first lap on a fresh set of softer tires, the reigning champion posted a 1:09.1540, once again setting a time that appeared good enough for pole. Rosenqvist was on a fast lap at the time and remained ahead of Palou’s pace all the way to the Corkscrew, but he lost too much time through the corner and ultimately fell four hundredths of a second short.

McLaughlin, however, still had to complete his fast lap. The Penske driver also lost time through the Corkscrew, but came on strong through the final corners to eventually knock Palou down to second by two hundredths of a second. The result gave McLaughlin his third pole position of the season.

Full results of the qualifying session at Laguna Seca