Palou powers to pole position at picturesque Laguna Seca
P1 Award Winner Alex Palou – Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Photo by Joe Skibinski | IMS Photo
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio
Pole-sitter Alex Palou paced a parade of four Honda-powered drivers atop the speed chart Saturday during qualifying for this afternoon’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Alex Palou – Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Photo by James Black
Palou secured his second NTT P1 Award of the season and fifth of his NTT IndyCar Series career via a best lap of 1-minute, 7.1465-seconds/119.988 mph in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. A two-time/reigning series champion, Palou is second in the point standings _ five (236-231) behind Will Power of Team Penske.
Another two-time series champ, native Australian Power qualified 15th at 1:08.0178/118.451 mph in the 27-car field around the undulating, 2.238-mile/11-turn permanent road-course in the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet.
“It was really tough, really tight all qualifying to get to the Fast 12 and then the Fast Six,” said Palou, a 27-year-old native of Spain. “It was really tricky with track conditions. As soon as there was some wind, you couldn’t finish the lap because there was no grip.
Alex Palou – Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Photo by Joe Skibinski | IMS Photo
“The car was on rails today, so the best starting position (for today).”
Live coverage of the 95-lap/212.61-mile race will start at 6 p.m. (EDT) on the USA Network, Peacock and the INDYCAR Radio Network. A 30-minute warmup will precede the race at 3 p.m., live on Peacock and the INDYCAR Radio Network.
The pole added another chapter to Palou’s impressive history at the picturesque Northern California circuit famous for its “Corkscrew” complex of turns. Palou won this race in 2022 and finished second in 2021 and third in 2023.
Kyle Kirkwood – Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Photo by Joe Skibinski | IMS Photo
Kyle Kirkwood joined Palou on the front row after a best lap of 1:07.2204/119.856 mph in the No. 27 AutoNation Honda fielded by Andretti Global. P2 is Kirkwood’s best performance in qualifying since winning the pole and the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach street race in April 2023.
Sweden’s Felix Rosenqvist continued his recent resurgence with Meyer Shank Racing, qualifying third at 1:07.2917/119.729 mph in the No. 60 AutoNation/SiriusXM Honda. Rosenqvist earned his first top-three qualifying result since winning pole at Long Beach by saving his best-for-last. Mired at the bottom of the chart with time running out in the Firestone Fast Six, the series veteran snapped-off his lap at 119-plus mph on his final trip.
“Big turnaround for us,” said Rosenqvist, who previously competed at Laguna Seca with Arrow McLaren.
Colton Herta – Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Photo by Joe Skibinski | IMS Photo
“We were 23rd in practice (Friday) but now P3 in qually, so we’ll take that. Felt pretty good, the car was solid. We’re missing two-tenths to Palou, but he nailed that lap. (MSR teammate) David Malukas did a great job as well, getting into the top-12 on his comeback weekend and first weekend with the team, so really good job for him coming back from the injury. So, a really exciting day for us.”
Native Californian Colton Herta, who led practice Saturday morning, qualified fourth at 1:07.2972/119.720 mph in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda of Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian. Herta won this race in 2019 and 2021.
Alexander Rossi – Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Photo by James Black
Team Chevy was led by Alexander Rossi in fifth at 1:07.3594/119.609 mph in the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. “It’s been a smooth weekend so far, and it’s good to qualify where I think we should be,” said Rossi, another native of California. “When you’re that close and you fall short, it’s a little disappointing, but ultimately the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet has been awesome. The team has done an amazing job, and I think we’ll have a really strong package going into (Sunday).”
Denmark’s Christian Lundgaard completed the Firestone Fast Six and Row 3 at 1:07.5112/119.340 mph in the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda fielded by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Christian Lundgaard – Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Photo by Paul Hurley
“If you would’ve told me before qualifying that we were going to be in the Fast Six, I would’ve taken that,” Lundgaard said. “We hadn’t shown the speed to be there, but we executed qualifying well. We were fast when we needed to be. I wish we had a little more in the Fast Six but, seeing the gap from sixth-to-fifth, everybody else had another two-to-three tenths that we simply just don’t have.
“The track (pavement) aging hasn’t been kind to us. It was kind to us last year, so we will see what we can do in the race and move the Hy-Vee Honda forward.”
The other three drivers in the top-five of the championship standings _ third-place Scott Dixon, fourth-place Pato O’Ward and fifth-place Scott McLaughlin _ will try to close their respective gaps to Palou from the fourth and fifth rows of the grid.
Pato O’Ward – Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Photo by Joe Skibinski | IMS Photo
Native New Zealander McLaughlin, who led Friday’s opening practice, qualified seventh in the No. 3 Good Ranchers Team Penske Chevrolet. O’Ward was ninth in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet and Dixon _ a six-time series champion, also from New Zealand _ gridded 10th in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
“It wasn’t the best of Saturdays I would say, but we can work from P9,” said O’Ward, a native of Mexico with family ties to San Antonio. “I was happy with the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, so we’ll see what we can make better for the longer stints and see where it takes us.”
Arrow McLaren Team Principal Gavin Ward said his two veteran drivers turned in a “mixed bag” of results. “On one hand you’ve got Alexander’s best qualifying of the year,” Ward said. “He did a good job to get up there, and he really pulled out a great lap to get into the Firestone Fast Six. We just didn’t have enough to fight for pole today.
David Malukas – Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Photo by Paul Hurley
“Pato left a bit on the table in Q2. The potential was there to get that car in the Fast Six, but it was a bit of a scrappy session.”
As noted by Rosenqvist, Malukas turned in a solid performance during his first qualifying session after signing with MSR last week to wheel the No. 66 Honda long-term. Malukas continues to recover from a left wrist injury suffered during a mountain biking accident in February. That training mishap prompted Arrow McLaren to release the native Chicagoan from his contract before ever competing for the team.
Malukas moved up the chart on his final lap of the first qualifying session to advance into the second round, where he carded a best lap of 1:07.8442/118.758mph to grid 12th.
Santino Ferrucci – Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Photo by Paul Hurley
“I took the (wrist) brace off and tried something different with a wrap and it definitely helped,” said Malukas, who is in his third NTT IndyCar Series season. “Making it to Q2 felt like a victory to me. We got that one perfect lap in there and made it work. You’re coming into the season when everyone else is in mid-season form, but everything felt good to me. I’m really happy with how everything went today.”
A.J. Foyt Racing teammates Santino Ferrucci and Sting Ray Robb were among a number of drivers who spun off-course during Friday’s opening practice, with the No. 14 and No.41 Chevrolets emerging unscathed. Ferrucci’s spin in the famed “Corkscrew” saw the Dallas resident maintain control backwards down the twisting complex before executing a quick, 180-degree turn to point the No. 14 Sexton Homes Chevrolet in the proper direction.
Sting Ray Robb – Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Photo by Paul Hurley
Ferrucci will start 17th after his best lap Saturday of 1:08.0344/118.422 mph. “I think we did a great job considering our recovery from the spin, which put us back a set of tires,” said Ferrucci, who noted that his “recovery” stemmed from his iRacing (video game) experience. “Things you do in iRacing you usually don’t see on TV.”
Regarding his qualifying effort, Ferrucci said, “I wish I’d gapped myself a little bit better for our run on the reds (Firestone Firehawk alternate tires). But overall, I felt the Sexton Properties Chevrolet was pretty good. I feel like we had a legitimate shot at advancing (to the next round). Now we’ll start 17th. We have a very good race car, so we’ll move forward, pretty easily I hope.”
Louis Foster claimed a portion of the INDY NXT by Firestone championship lead after a flag-to-flag victory Saturday in Race 1 of the Grand Prix of Monterey double-header at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Foster earned his third victory in the last four races in the No. 26 Copart/Novara Technologies car fielded by Andretti Global, pulling even with Jacob Abel in the standings with 291 points.
Louis Foster – INDY NXT By Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Photo by Joe Skibinski | IMS Photo
“The team gave me a good car,” said Foster, a 20-year-old native of Hampshire, United Kingdom. “I was able to just keep pushing. I was managing tires, but they didn’t need much management, to be honest with you. Super-happy.”
The Brit will try to take the point lead today in Race 2 of the final “twin-bill” of the season for the INDYCAR developmental series, with live coverage starting at 3:55 p.m. (EDT) on Peacock and the INDYCAR Radio Network. Foster has outscored Abel by 30 points overall during the last five races.
Pole-sitter Foster beat rookie Caio Collet’s No. 18 HMD Motorsports car to the finish by a massive 8.2445-seconds, easily the largest margin of victory through seven races this season. Collet, who started second, tied his career-best finish set earlier this month on the Streets of Detroit.
“I think Louis, he’s on his own world today,” Collet said. “Hopefully we can improve a bit (today). I think we have some work to do to catch him up. Big congrats to him. There was nothing any of us could do today. We’ll keep pushing.”
Jacob Abel salvaged championship points by finishing third in the No. 51 Abel Construction machine fielded by Abel Motorsports. Yuven Sundaramoorthy earned a career-best fourth place in the No. 22 S Team/Abel Motorsports car, just missing his first career podium due to an incident in the race’s final corner. James Roe completed the top-five in the No. 29 Topcon car of Andretti Global.
Louis Foster – INDY NXT By Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Photo by Paul Hurley
Foster toyed with the 20-car field after starting from P1. He built a lead of two seconds before what turned out as the only caution flag of the day flew on Lap 6, when Reece Gold made contact with the barrier in Turn 5 of the 2.238-mile/11-turn layout in the No. 10 HMD Motorsports car.
It took little time for Foster to rocket away from the field on the restart on Lap 8. Foster boosted his lead to 3.7-seconds by Lap 16 and 5.6-seconds by Lap 25 despite rarely touching the push-to-pass button on his steering wheel during the entire 35-lap/78.33-mile event.
Despite Foster’s dominance, a bit of drama unfolded over the closing laps. Sundaramoorthy dove under teammate Abel with a muscular move in the famous “Corkscrew” turn complex to take third place on Lap 34. But in the final corner of the last lap, Sundaramoorthy and the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing car of Lindsay Brewer made contact as Sundaramoothy attempted to lap his fellow-series rookie. That incident forced Sundaramoorthy to limp across the finish in fourth with a damaged right front wheel.
Abel snuck past the incident between Sundaramoorthy and Brewer to secure his sixth podium finish in seven starts this season.
“Yuven made a good move on me,” Abel said. “It was very aggressive _ a little bit more aggressive than I probably thought he was going to be to me. It was a clean move, nonetheless. I feel a little bit bad for him. He just made a mistake in the last corner there. We’ll take it, anyways, and move forward.”
Qualifying results for the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey NTT IndyCar Series event on the 2.238-mile/11-turn WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca road-course in Northern California, with position, car number in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, time and speed in parentheses:
- (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 01:07.1465 (119.988 mph)
2. (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 01:07.2204 (119.856)
3. (60) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 01:07.2917 (119.729)
4. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 01:07.2972 (119.720)
5. (7) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 01:07.3594 (119.609)
6. (45) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 01:07.5112 (119.340)
7. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 01:07.3994 (119.538)
8. (77) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 01:07.4286 (119.486)
9. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 01:07.4900 (119.378)
10. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 01:07.5874 (119.206)
11. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 01:07.6143 (119.158)
12. (66) David Malukas, Honda, 01:07.8422 (118.758)
13. (78) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 01:07.8976 (118.661)
14. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 01:07.7246 (118.964)
15. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 01:08.0178 (118.451)
16. (8) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 01:07.8056 (118.822)
17. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 01:08.0344 (118.422)
18. (28) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 01:07.9233 (118.616)
19. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 01:08.0922 (118.322)
20. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 01:07.9897 (118.500)
21. (20) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 01:08.3711 (117.839)
22. (4) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 01:08.1571 (118.209)
23. (6) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 01:08.6785 (117.312)
24. (30) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 01:08.1824 (118.165)
25. (41) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 01:09.1304 (116.545)
26. (18) Jack Harvey, Honda, 01:08.4730 (117.664)
27. (51) Luca Ghiotto, Honda, 01:08.5078 (117.604)
NTT IndyCar Series point standings _ 1, Will Power, Team Penske, 236; 2, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, 231; 3, Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, 225; 4, Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren, 184; 5, Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske, 179; 6, Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global, 179; 7, Colton Herta, Andretti Global, 176; 8, Josef Newgarden, Team Penske, 169; 9, Alexander Rossi, Arrow McLaren, 162; 10, Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing, 157;
11, Christian Lundgaard, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 141; 12, Santino Ferrucci, A.J. Foyt Racing, 132; 13, Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global, 130; 14, Marcus Armstrong, Chip Ganassi Racing, 121; 15, Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 121; 16, Romain Grosjean, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 112; 17, Rinus VeeKay, Ed Carpenter Racing, 109; 18, Linus Lundqvist, Chip Ganassi Racing, 100; 19, Kyffin Simpson, Chip Ganassi Racing, 81; 20, Pietro Fittipaldi, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 81;
21, Theo Pourchaire, Arrow McLaren, 75; 22, Augustin Canapino, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 74; 23, Sting Ray Robb, A.J. Foyt Racing, 68; 24, Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter Racing, 65; 25, Jack Harvey, Dale Coyne Racing, 65; 26, Tom Blomqvist, Meyer Shank Racing, 46; 27, Callum Ilott, Arrow McLaren, 39; 28, Helio Castroneves, Meyer Shank Racing, 26; 29, Luca Ghiotto, Dale Coyne Racing, 22; 30, Conor Daly, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing-Cusick Motorsports, 21;
31, Kyle Larson, Hendrickcars.com Arrow McLaren, 21; 32, Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 19; 33, Nolan Siegel, Dale Coyne Racing, 17; 34, Ed Carpenter, Ed Carpenter Racing, 14; 35, Tristan Vautier, Dale Coyne Racing, 12; 36, Colin Braun, Dale Coyne Racing, 10; 37, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing-Cusick Motorsports, 6; 38, Marco Andretti, Andretti Herta with Marco & Curb Agajanian, 5; 39, Katherine Legge, Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing, 5.
