Palou points the way to claim back-to-back pole positions

Evan Roberts
May 9
3 min read

Written by Evan Roberts

An unmatched Álex Palou took pole position in style, topping each of his groups, putting an outrageous five tenths over his nearest competitor come the fast six. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver will lead the field to green ahead of the impressive RLL duo of Graham Rahal and Louis Foster.

Group 1

The first competitive session at Indianapolis this season had a steady start. Tyre strategies were mixed throughout the field, with big names such as Pato O’Ward going for an unlikely given the tyre allocation, red-red strategy.

And it would be O’Ward who set the benchmark for the rest of the field through the first runs. The highest placed driver on the black harder tyres was Colton Herta down in seventh.

A benchmark he would not relinquish either as O’Ward took top spot in group one ahead of former teammate Alexander Rossi.

The main shock of the session was both Andretti cars of Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood who both missed out on transferring to the fast 12. Finishing 7th and 11th in Group 1.

Other notable performances include Rookie Louis Foster advancing in the Rahal Letterman Lannigan machine who made his second fast 12 appearance of the season.

Advanced: 1. O’Ward 2. Rossi 3. Rosenqvist 4. Ferrucci 5. Foster 6. Simpson

Group 2

Seeing the struggles of those such as Herta who opted for the harder tyre, the majority of group 2, including all three Penske cars, decided to opt for the strategy utilised by O’Ward in group 1.

And it would be the Penske cars who would control the timing tower after the first runs sitting First, Second and Fourth, with Will Power topping the charts.

Someone who stood strong and stayed on their preferred strategy was Championship Leader Palou, confident he would be able to get through on only one set of sticker red tyres.

That confidence would not be misplaced as the Spaniard finished the session the same way he had the majority of the season, on top.

He would be joined in the fast 12 by all three Penske’s as well as the other two RLL cars who joined teammate Foster to send all three cars into the Fast 12 for the first time since… showing incredible pace.

Notable names who missed out on transferring in this session included Christian Lundgaard, Scott Dixon and Marcus Ericsson, which made it an Andretti-free fast 12.

Advanced: 1. Palou 2. Defrancesco 3. Power 4. Rahal 5. McLaughlin 6. Newgarden

Fast 12

The fast 12 featured six drivers who were yet to advance to the final stage of qualifying so far this season.

With 20 seconds left in the session, the entire timing pylon showed green. The first car to cross the line was O’Ward who went to the top only to be within a matter of moments be shuffled out of contention entirely.

Defying every expectation, a valiant effort by RLL saw all three of their cars make the fast 6 in a fine show of form for the first time so far this season. With it being a fast 6 for rookie Foster.

Despite this shock to the system, there no surprise to see Palou top yet another session. The Spaniard unassailable yet again.

Advanced 1. Palou 2. Rahal 3. Foster 4. Defrancesco 5. Newgarden 6. McLaughlin

Fast 6

It was yet again advantage Palou going into the final six minutes as advancing from group 2 using only one set of tyres meant he had an extra set to use in the final qualifying session

It wouldn’t all be rosy however as a slight slip up in the form of a locked tyre meant it would be down to his final lap to see if he could secure yet another pole position.

Both Penske cars would also play a tactical game as already having made the fast 6 they would opt to run used tyres for their final runs in order to save an extra set of fresh tyres for the race.

A little lock up would do little to concern the conquistador of concrete as Palou was yet again in a different time zone to the rest of the competition to secure back to back pole positions by a margin of over half a second.

He would be joined on the front row by the first of the RLL cars of Graham Rahal, closely followed by teammate Foster. Scott McLauglin would be the lead Penske in fourth, with Devlin Defrancesco splitting the two cars to place fifth meaning Josef Newgarden would take sixth.