IndyCar Indy road course GP starting lineup: Alex Palou captures first pole of season
Alex Palou scored his first NTT IndyCar Series pole position of the 2024 season at the track that kicked off his charge to last year's championship.
The Chip Ganassi Racing star turned a lap of 1 minute, 9.0004 seconds around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Christian Lundgaard, who won the pole at the track a year ago, qualified second (1:09.0921), followed by Will Power and Josef Newgarden — as the Team Penske duo took the second row in the starting lineup despite each losing two team members to suspensions this week.
After winning by nearly 17 seconds in last year's race at the IMS road course, Palou won the Indy 500 pole position and then three consecutive races.
QUALIFYING RESULTS: Click here for Indy road course Sonsio Grand Prix qualifying speeds | Round 1, Group 1 | Round 1, Group 2 | Round 2 l Round 3
"We just had an amazing amount of work by the whole team that allowed me to have the best car every single weekend last year so much in a row and we executed," Palou said after his fourth career pole position. "We were lucky at some moments, and we took advantage of it.
IndyCar Grand Prix at Indy road course: How to watch on NBC, start times, schedules, streaming
The Sonsio GP officially kicks off racing in May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
"But it helps. Momentum always helps. Mentally, if you are on the fence of doing a good overtake or a bad overtake, you're probably going to do a good one, and the same goes for laps when it comes down to really high-pressure moments. ... Every time you start up front, it makes it feel that way. I think it's so hard for us to get poles, and we're not here very often that it makes it so, so, so special."
Palou also had a special delivery, who was celebrating a birthday in Spain. She and other family will arrive in time for Indy 500 qualifying next week, but Palou had a chance for a quick phone call home after the pole.
"Yeah, that's the gift for her, so I don't have to buy now," he said with a smile, pausing to add, " I actually sent something."
It was a disappointing day for Andretti Global, whose three drivers failed to advance from the first round.
Points leader Colton Herta will start a season-worst 24th after running out of fuel for the last few turns of his final qualifying lap. It's the worst qualifying effort in 11 months for the No. 26 Dallara-Honda driver, who paced Friday morning's practice.
Rob Andrews, chief operating officer for Andretti, told NBC Sports' Kevin Lee cited "human error" as the reason the car ran out of fuel.
Here’s the IndyCar starting lineup for Saturday's Sonsio Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the 14-turn, 2.39-mile road course (qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, engine, time and speed):
ROW 1
1. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 1 minute, 9.0004 seconds (127.251 mph)
2. (45) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 01:09.0921 (127.083)
ROW 2
3. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 01:09.1636 (126.951)
4. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 01:09.2528 (126.788)
ROW 3
5. (5) Pato O'Ward, Chevrolet, 1:09.3320 (126.643)
6. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 1:09.5270 (126.288)
ROW 4
7. (7) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 1:09.0801 (127.105)
8. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 1:09.1175 (127.036)
ROW 5
9. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 1:09.1491 (126.978)
10. (60) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 1:09.2923 (126.715)
ROW 6
11. (30) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 1:09.3698 (126.574)
12. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 1:09.3915 (126.534)
ROW 7
13. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 1:09.1378 (126.999)
14. (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 1:09.1712 (126.937)
ROW 8
15. (78) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 1:09.2578 (126.779)
16. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 1:09.2637 (126.768)
ROW 9
17. (18) Jack Harvey, Honda, 1:09.3254 (126.655)
18. (6) Theo Pourchaire, Chevrolet, 1:09.3816 (126.552)
ROW 10
19. (8) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 1:09.3385 (126.631)
20. (20) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 1:09.4190 (126.484)
ROW 11
21. (28) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 1:09.3936 (126.530)
22. (51) Luca Ghiotto, Honda, 1:09.4519 (126.424)
ROW 12
23. (77) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 1:09.4283 (126.467)
24. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 1:09.5391 (126.266)
ROW 13
25. (4) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 1:09.5613 (126.225)
26. (66) Tom Blomqvist, Honda, 1:09.6264 (126.107)
ROW 14
27. (41) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 01:10.0399 (125.363)
