Palou moves closer to IndyCar championship with dominant victory at Laguna Seca

Credit: Joe Skibinski

Álex Palou moved onto the cusp of a fourth IndyCar championship as he dominated proceedings at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca to take his eighth victory of the season at IndyCar's Grand Prix of Monterey. Christian Lundgaard claimed a fifth podium of the season in second whilst Colton Herta finished third.

How it happened

Palou's dominant pole on Saturday meant he would lead the field to green for the fifth time in 2025 as his closest championship challenger, Pato O'Ward lined up alongside him on the front row. Both would select the softer, alternate tyre to start the race with whilst Herta, starting in third, selecting the harder, primary tyre.

Herta would be the big mover, as he jumped O'Ward on the run down to Turn 1, whilst Robert Shwartzman and Conor Daly would make contact in Turn 3 further back in the field. They both came out unscathed but it was not the same story for Kyffin Simpson and Felix Rosenqvist who collided on the run up to Turn 6 after Simpson rear-ended Rosenqvist, with both drivers being sent into the barrier. Despite Rosenqvist's impact, he was able to limp back to the pits and continue albeit several laps down.

Palou led the field back to green after a caution period of four laps with no significant movement on the restart and started to progressively build his lead over Herta in the following laps with his tyre advantage.

The caution would come back out on Lap 11 with Jacob Abel in the barrier in Turn 2 after a mechanical failure. The caution gave an opportunity for many to pit including Scott Dixon, Nolan Siegel, Rinus VeeKay and Kyle Kirkwood.

Palou comfortably held his lead again on the restart with Herta unable to match the pace of the Spaniard on the harder tyre with Palou building his lead to six seconds by Lap 20.

Credit: Joe Skibinski

Lundgaard was the first driver in the top 10 to make his first stop on Lap 20 with David Malukas pitting from seventh the following lap. Scott McLaughlin and Graham Rahal would also pit from inside the top 10 a lap after Malukas.

O'Ward would be the first inside the top five to pit when he came in at the end of Lap 23 as he moved onto another set of used alternate tyres.

Moments after, Rinus VeeKay went off at Turn 3 after being collected by Kirkwood. The American would later get a stop-go penalty for the incident. With the caution almost certain to come out, the remaining frontrunners including Palou and Herta took the opportunity to make their opening stop moments before the yellow finally did come out.

Siegel, who had pitted during the previous caution had jumped to the lead ahead of Palou. Dixon and Callum Ilott followed, who had also pitted under the same caution, ahead of Herta and O'Ward.

Siegel led the field to green as he led a lap in IndyCar for the first time in his career whilst further behind, his teammates would jostle behind as Lundgaard got past O'Ward for sixth into Turn 3. Palou would reclaim the lead on-track on Lap 37 as he went around the outside of Siegel at Turn 3 with the American bailing into the pits at the end of the lap.

Herta would also reclaim the second place that he held for so long after overtaking Dixon into Turn 3 on Lap 39 with Dixon losing another place as Lundgaard dived to the inside of the New Zealander into 'the Corkscrew,' with Dixon pitting after losing those positions.

O'Ward made his second stop on Lap 44 and moved onto the unfavoured primary tyre to run his mandatory stint on the compound with O'Ward having to defend heavily from Ilott on his outlap. O'Ward came out in 17th, whilst Lundgaard would make his stop a lap later coming back into the field in 10th.

Josef Newgarden, who was running in third, also moved to the hard compound on Lap 50 with Palou and Herta coming in the following lap as Will Power temporarily moved into the lead, not having made his second stop. Meanwhile, Lundgaard would make a bold move on Herta into Turn 11 to take second place, just five seconds behind Palou.

After the second stops had been made, Palou led ahead of Lundgaard, Herta, Dixon and O'Ward.

Marcus Armstrong quickly became the one to watch, as he made a sensational move on McLaughlin into the Corkscrew, before making an excellent move on Newgarden into Turn 3 to move up to 10th place.

By Lap 63, Palou's lead over Lundgaard had extended to eight seconds, with Lundgaard holding a one-and-a-half second gap to Herta, who held a nine second gap to Dixon behind.

Dixon made his final stop on Lap 67 and stayed on the alternate tyres. Ilott, who was on the same strategy as Dixon, made his final stop from sixth.

Lundgaard and Herta made their final stops on Lap 69, with Lundgaard going to a used set of alternate, whilst Herta had a new set available. O'Ward made his final stop at the same time, also onto a new set of alternates. Race leader Palou safely made his last visit to pit road on Lap 72 and retained his comfortable lead over Lundgaard.

Just as another victory looked inevitable for Palou, a spin for Marcus Ericsson exiting Turn 6 brought out the fourth caution of the day with 17 laps to go to neutralise the field. Ericsson had ran wide on the exit of Turn 6 and was unable to restart after spinning just over the crest.

Although the field was bunched up, Palou was never going to relinquish his lead and comfortably fended off any challenge on the restart as the Top 10 all held their positions. However, Palou would have to do it all again as Santino Ferrucci spun at the Corkscrew and was beached bringing out a fifth caution of the race.

The top three were as they were on the restart, but Dixon ran wide into Turn 1, giving O'Ward an opportunity to claim fourth place. Herta would have a look at Lundgaard into Turn 1 with seven laps to go with no avail, as he tried to make advantage of his fresher tyres.

There would be no issues for Palou though into the chequered flag as he dominated once again for a third victory at Laguna Seca. Lundgaard was successful in holding off Herta, with O'Ward in fourth and Dixon rounding at the top five. Ilott achieved PREMA's best ever result in sixth, with Power, Armstrong, Rasmussen and McLaughlin the remaining top ten finishers.

Palou took his eighth victory of the season following on from successes at St. Petersburg, Thermal, Barber, both the Indianapolis Road Course and Oval, Road America and Iowa. With O'Ward's fourth place finish, Palou's points lead has now opened up to 124 points, and will win a fourth series title in Portland if O'Ward fails to outscore the Spaniard by 15 points.

It would be yet another podium for Lundgaard after previously stepping on the rostrum in Thermal, Long Beach, Barber and Mid-Ohio whilst Herta claimed a second podium of the season.

It was a familiar tale of the 2025 IndyCar season at Laguna Seca with Palou back in Victory Lane on his march to his name being engraved on the Astor Challenge Cup for a fourth time.