Palou and O'Ward battle for pole in qualifying at Laguna Seca

Written by Morgan Holiday

Credit: Joe Skibinski

Álex Palou took his fifth pole position of the year and his second consecutive pole position at the Laguna Seca track for the Grand Prix of Monterey.

Pato O'Ward finished second, where he'll start tomorrow's race behind Palou. Andretti Global's Colton Herta finished the day in third.

Group 1

After Practice 2 had been cancelled earlier in the day due to weather conditions, drivers took the track with just one practice session under their belt.

Herta was the early pacesetter for Group 1, but with about six minutes to go it was the PREMA Racing rookie Robert Shwartzman who took the top spot for a few moments before his time was topped by Scott McLaughlin.

Championship leader Palou had several moments where he went off into the gravel briefly during the opening laps of the session. With two minutes to go Palou sat in seventh place, just outside the promotion zone as McLaughlin and his Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden led the group in fastest lap times.

But Palou's next lap time, a 1:08.665s, put him up to the top spot as McLaren's Christian Lundgaard went up to second. With time run out and drivers on the final laps, Felix Rosenqvist improved to second. Sitting just outside the top six was Ed Carpenter Racing's Christian Rasmussen, whose final lap bumped him up to third ahead of Lundgaard, Herta and Newgarden.

Rasmussen bumped McLaughlin to seventh and the Penske driver missed out on progressing to the next session of qualifying. Also knocked out were Marcus Ericsson, Rinus VeeKay, Scott Dixon, Jacob Abel, Conor Daly and Shwartzman.

Credit: Joe Skibinski

Group 2

O'Ward set the pace for Group 2 before Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) came out in full force and Graham Rahal and rookie Louis Foster stole the top two spots. Then it was IndyCar's newest podium finisher Kyffin Simpson who set a lap time of 1:09.709 before Foster improved again to go P1.

With five minutes to go in the session, Devlin DeFrancesco stopped on track after a mistake in the corkscrew turn. He was able to get going again continued, though he dropped down to last place in the following moments.

AJ Foyt Racing's David Malukas topped the timing sheets ahead of Simpson and AJ Foyt teammate Santino Ferrucci. O'Ward was the notable name outside of the top six, sitting in 11th, but everyone would work to improve on their final laps.

And with just a few seconds left on the clock O'Ward did, in fact, improve, jumping to the top spot with a time of 1:09.079. Alex Rossi's final lap time could not bump him up into the top six, and he sat seventh, dropping through the rankings as other drivers improved.

Nolan Siegel improved but only to eighth, Kyle Kirkwood improved, but only to ninth. In the end, O'Ward held P1 ahead of Marcus Armstrong and Malukas. Will Power, Foster and Rahal were the final three drivers to advance to the Fast 12.

Simpson finished seventh as the top driver missing out, ahead of Siegel, Kirkwood, Ferrucci, and Rossi. Callum Ilott, Sting Ray Robb and DeFrancesco finished at the back of the back.

Credit: Chris Owens

Fast 12

The six fastest drivers from both groups came together for the Fast 12 to battle for a chance to go for pole position. Unsurprisingly it was Palou and O'Ward who were the early pacesetters of the group. But continuing their run of good form so far in the day, both RLL drivers, Rahal and Foster, sat within the top six as well early on in the session.

As most drivers came back to the pits halfway through the session to change tyres and re-group, Herta was leading the field ahead of Malukas and Rosenqvist. With one minute to go it was Palou who led the group having set a lap time of 1:08.594, with almost everyone out on track and improving.

Newgarden jumped up to third and Lundgaard improved to fourth. Foster's penultimate lap only put him fast enough for sixth, meaning he'd have to improve on his final lap.

Rosenqvist caused a local yellow in the final moments after a trip into the gravel. O'Ward, who had falled down the order, improved to third on his final lap, and though Herta improved ahead of him, it was enough to bump him through to the Fast 6. Rosenqvist finished second behind O'Ward, but he was dropped to the back for causing a local yellow, promoting Herta and O'Ward to second and third.

Malukas, Newgarden and Power (after Rosenqvist's penalty) became the final three to advance. Set in the their starting positions of seventh through 12th for tomorrow's race were Lundgaard, Rahal, Foster, Armstrong, Rasmussen and Rosenqvist.

Credit: Joe Skibinski

Fast 6

The six fastest drivers were slow to head out on track for their final laps of the day, wanting to come out at the best possible time to get a chance at pole position.

For the first part of the session, Power led Palou and O'Ward, Power having set a lap time of 1:10.006s. With one minute to go, Newgarden improved to third as O'Ward now went fastest, almost two seconds faster than Power.

Not to be outdone, Palou set a time of 1:08.341 to go to the top ahead of O'Ward and now Herta in third. With none of the drivers improving in the final moments, Palou secured his fifth pole position of the year.

O'Ward and Herta will line up behind him tomorrow, with Newgarden in fourth. Power and Malukas finished fifth and sixth, where they'll start the race from on Sunday.

Sunday's broadcast begins at 12:00 local time in California.