By RICHIE HALL
SPEEDWAY – Alex Palou flew to the finish at the Sonsio Grand Prix.
The Spanish star got stronger as he got closer to the checkered flag, and that culminated in a dominant win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course last Saturday. Palou won his second consecutive Grand Prix with a 6.6106-second win over 2018 champion Will Power.
“It was an amazing week,” said Palou. “It’s great to be back-to-back from last year.”
Palou stayed in contention for the entire race, although it took him until the halfway point to get in front. Most of the first half belonged to Christian Lundgaard, who led the first 18 laps before making his first pit stop. He then led Laps 23 to 39 before Palou took over on Lap 40.
Once he got the lead, Palou was unstoppable, holding the front spot for 39 laps. The fact the race was smooth helped out as well: there were only two caution laps (66 and 67) when rookie Luca Ghiotto spun on Turn 10. Palou only gave up the lead for three laps during the last third of the race when he made a pit stop on Lap 63, but he was back in front on Lap 65 and stayed there until the checkered flag.
Alex Palou raises his fist after crossing the start-finish line. (Joshua Herd)
The Grand Prix victory was the first official win of the season for Palou, and it continued an impressive streak of 23 top 10 finishes, dating back to the 2022 season. Palou has placed in the top five in all four of his INDYCAR starts this year, and is now turning his attention to the Indianapolis 500, for which practice begins early this week.
“We’re going to celebrate, for sure, but we’re going to switch this afternoon our focus to the big one,” said Palou.
Will Power finished in second place, while Christian Lundgaard finished out the podium with a third-place finish. For Power, it was the 2018 Indy 500 winner’s third runner-up finish of the INDYCAR season, and he called it “a very solid day for us.”
“Just didn’t quite have enough in the re-start,” said Power. After Ghiotto’s spin brought out the yellow flag, Power was in second to Palou, but the eventual champion steadily increased his lead over Power for the remainder of the race.
Lundgaard, the 22-year-old Danish driver who is competing in his third full INDYCAR campaign, said he was disappointed to finish third after leading so many laps in the first half of the race. But it was his best result of the season and his highest place since winning the Indy Toronto race last July.
“We needed a little luck today,” said Lundgaard. “I think we did everything we could in the first two stints to make sure the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda had a shot. Palou really deserved it today.”
Veteran Scott Dixon placed fourth in the race, while young New Zealand driver Marcus Armstrong was fifth, his best official finish in an INDYCAR race. The 23-year-old is in his second full season on the circuit.
Alex Palou, runner-up Will Power and third-place finisher Christian Lundgaard spray each other with champagne on the podium. (Joshua Herd)