Palou steals win in IndyCar Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
- Morgan Holiday
- 41 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Written by Morgan Holiday
Anyone who doubted that Álex Palou's generational run of form could continue into 2026 was proven wrong as he swooped in to take the win at the IndyCar season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Scott McLaughlin may have been robbed of a win from pole position, but he managed an excellent drive to hang onto second place, while Arrow McLaren's Christian Lundgaard jumped up from outside the top 10 to complete the podium.
How it happened
McLaughlin led the field to green in St. Pete with Marcus Ericsson and rookie Dennis Hauger right behind him. McLaughlin held the lead heading into the first few corners as reigning champion Palou jumped ahead of Hauger to third in the opening moments of the race.
Unsurprisingly, it only took a few corners for chaos to break out as further down the field Sting Ray Robb and Santino Ferrucci made contact. The pair took out rookie driver Mick Schumacher in the crossfire, and while Robb was able to keep going, niether Ferucci nor Schumacher were able to recover and that marked the end of their 2026 debuts.
As the caution ticked away a few laps, McLaughlin ran in front ahead of Ericsson and Palou, with Marcus Armstrong up to fourth and Hauger down to fifth. The race restarted on Lap 6, and McLaughlin took off with the No.28 Andretti car of Ericsson close behind. Drivers scrapped for position throughout the field.
Romain Grosjean, newly returned to IndyCar with Dale Coyne Racing, fought with David Malukas for sixth place. Malukas struggled with a flat spot on his front left tyre but was able to hold off Grosjean and keep his position. Unfortunately, the tyre couldn't hold up much longer, and on Lap 12 Malukas lost the tyre and had to struggle back to pit lane, dropping down the field in the process. He came back out of the pits with a new tyre, now one lap down from the rest of the field.
Andretti's Will Power came into the pits on Lap 22 after making contact with the wall at Turn 10 and suffering rear suspension damage. His crew got to work on the No.26 car but they were unable to make repairs and Power became the next casualty of the race as he was forced to retire.
Out in front, McLaughlin still led Ericsson by eight tenths of a second, with Palou sitting about a second and a half behind them. Christian Rasmussen caused some minor panic as he spun after contact with Kyffin Simpson and dropped down the field, but he was able to continue and any major incident was avoided as the field continued under green flag conditions.
Rasmussen pitted right after his spin to refuel and put on a set of hard tyres. The McLaren pair of Pato O'Ward and Christian Lundgaard pit on Lap 35 and came out in 15th and 16th. The following lap it was McLaughin's time to come in from the lead and switch from hard to soft tyres. Ericsson inherited the race lead as McLaughlin came back out in ninth between Alex Rossi and Nolan Siegel.
Ericsson and Hauger pit from the top five shortly after, making Palou, Armstrong, and Scott Dixon the new top three running before Armstrong came in on Lap 38. As pitstops shuffled positions, Armstrong and Ericsson both came out ahead of McLaughlin, the pair battling tightly for the net lead of the race down in sixth and seventh.
The second caution of the day came out on Lap 40 as Dixon lost his rear right tyre after his pit stop. Louis Foster was leading at the caution ahead of Rinus VeeKay, Palou and Rossi.
Four laps later the field went back to green, Palou taking the lead ahead of Ericsson and McLaughlin as Foster had gone into the pits. Meanwhile, Andretti had made repairs to Power's car and sent the Australian driver back out on track. Power was racing 26 laps down from the leaders but was out to gain as much track time and experience in the car as possible to salvage his day.
As the race settled into a groove, Palou led Ericsson by over eight seconds, the rest of the field still not immune to the Spaniard's abilities. McLaughlin and Armstrong followed close behind Ericsson, with Kyle Kirkwood having made his way up the field to be sitting in fifth place.
On Lap 65, McLaughlin had been sitting patiently and finally made his move on Ericsson to take second place, and Armstrong dropped down from fourth to sixth.
Palou, Ericsson and Armstrong all came into the pits, allowing McLaughlin to regain his lead with O'Ward and Lundgaard slotting into second and third. McLaughlin pulled in for a pit stop a few laps later, coming out in 10th before getting overtaken by a flying Kirkwood. Kirkwood's tyre made contact with McLaughlin in the battle but was able to continue and keep his lead over the Team Penske driver.
By Lap 74 Palou was back in the lead with Foster and Felix Rosenqvist behind. Foster pit a few laps later and Malukas graduated to third place ahead of Kirkwood and McLaughlin. Armstrong was relegated down to 13th after his botched battles pre-pit stop, and Ericsson had dropped down to sixth.
Kirkwood seemed the only driver able to put a dent in Palou's dominance, the American driver up 13 places to second place and within five and a half seconds of Palou with 18 laps to go.
As the laps remaining ticked down, Kirkwood slowed down marginally to conserve fuel, allowing Palou to pull away again and McLaughlin to creep up and battle for second place. With 7 laps to go, Kirkwood couldn't hang on any longer and both McLaughlin and Lundgaard jumped ahead of him to take second and third place in Turns 10 and 11.
Not content with third place, Lundgaard battled to the end to try to get second place from McLaughlin, who was fighting not to fall any farther from grace after beginning the race on pole. But on the final lap, as Palou crossed the finish line almost 13 seconds ahead of his closest rival, McLaughlin held on for second over the McLaren.
Kirkwood finished just off the podium, an excellent recovery drive after a disappointing Saturday for the Andretti driver. O'Ward completed the top five ahead of Ericsson, Josef Newgarden, Grosjean and VeeKay. Hauger completed the top 10, sealing a great debut from the Dale Coyne Racing rookie.
