Alex Palou earns another P1 start, while Andretti drivers face struggles for Indy

No surprise here: Alex Palou is back at the front of the NTT IndyCar Series field. This week, at Indy.

The dominant championship leader continued his near-flawless 2025 campaign into the Month of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a comfortable cruise to pole for Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix. Palou laid down a scorching 1:09.3417s lap to secure the pole by nearly half a second. It marked his eighth-career pole and second of 2025.

For Palou, the difference was a fresh set of soft tires.

“I think we had a bit of an advantage there with a set of brand new soft tires,” Palou said. “I think some used it in Q1 and we didn’t. Maybe that’s where the time comes. But anyways, that #10 DHL car was amazing. It’s been super fast all season, honestly. But today it’s been on fire.”

Palou needed the pace to deny a pole to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLLR), who stormed through qualifying on the Indianapolis road course with all three drivers in the Fast 6. Graham Rahal led the group in second, securing his best starting position since his 2023 pole run in Portland. Rookie Louis Foster followed with his first Fast 6 appearance in third, while Devlin DeFrancesco tied his career-best qualifying performance in fifth.

Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

The front row run was a pleasant surprise for Rahal, who assumed others might have softs and deny him a front-row start. But more than anything, Friday offered a much-needed boost for the team.

“Everybody watching knows this, we needed this,” Rahal said. “We expect to be good at (the) Indy road course. But to see it come together and actually have three cars in the top-five is amazing. It feels awesome for our team.”

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin split the RLL group in fourth, with Josef Newgarden following in sixth to complete the Fast 6. They’ll start just ahead of teammate Will Power, who failed to advance to the final round in seventh.

Before Palou’s sizable pole run, the final moments of the Fast 12 saw continual shakeups at the top of the charts, with most drivers setting their fastest lap after time expired while Felix Rosenqvist went for an unexpected trip off-course.

Palou managed to keep himself clear of the field, leading the trio of RLL drivers and Team Penske’s Newgarden and McLaughlin. Power, Pato O’Ward, Alexander Rossi, Kyffin Simpson, Santino Ferrucci and Rosenqvist were eliminated in the round. Power felt he’d lost two tenths in the opening corners, while a confused O’Ward said his car gave up two tenths down the straightaway.

O’Ward paced the field in Group 1 as the lone Fast 12 qualifier for Arrow McLaren. He was followed by Rossi, Rosenqvist, Ferrucci, Foster and Simpson. Palou was quickest in the second group and set the top overall time of the group rounds at 1:09.6683s, leading DeFrancesco, Power, Rahal, McLaughlin and Newgarden.

Both groups saw surprising eliminations, with Andretti Global’s trio of drivers all ousted in group qualifying. Current championship runner-up Christian Lundgaard fell .0332s short of Newgarden for the final transfer spot in the second group. He was followed by two-time Indy road course winner Scott Dixon, who couldn’t make sense of his lack of pace.

“The car feels quite good,” Dixon said after. “I don’t know what we’re missing. It feels kind of frustrating, to be honest.”

There were no major incidents in qualifying, with the forgiving Indy road course offering bountiful runoff area in the rare moments a driver dipped a wheel off-course. The most consequential moment may have been a block that wasn’t televised.

Andretti stars struggle — trouble for Saturday

If you want to know how Andretti Global’s qualifying effort went, it can be best summed up by one succinct quote afterward from championship hopeful Kyle Kirkwood.

“I don’t really have any positive things to say here, if I’m being honest,” Kirkwood told FOX Sports. “It’s a little disappointing.”

Kirkwood, Colton Herta, and Marcus Ericsson all struggled in the opening group qualifying round, leaving each driver mired in the pack for Saturday’s race and in need of a rally to keep from losing ground to their championship rivals.

Less than a month after Kirkwood and Herta swept the front row in Long Beach, none of Andretti’s drivers managed to crack the Fast 12 on the Indy road course. Herta came closest of the trio, falling just shy of advancement in seventh as the first group session drew to a close. Kirkwood was a distant 11th in the same group, while Ericsson found himself 10th in the second group.

For Kirkwood, who entered Indy third in the standings as the only race winner outside of Palou, a tire strategy play may have been his undoing.

“I didn’t get a chance to run the reds this morning,” Kirkwood told FOX Sports. “We kind of took a gamble with that and I don’t think it worked out perfectly in our favor. We wanted to have the best tires for the race, right? So that means not using as many of them.

“The way that qualifying worked out, everybody was backing up. It was only one lap to get it done. I didn’t really have a reference, if I’m being honest. And I ended up locking up (my tires) into turn 7, (only) ever-so-slightly. But it’s enough to cost you a tenth or two, which is everything here.”

Herta was left with similar concerns to Dixon. “The balance hasn’t been a problem,” he said. “It’s a weird thing this weekend. I’ve been generally happy with the car. We’ve just been slow. I think it’s just (a) lack of overall grip. However the mechanical grip is working is just not giving us the ultimate grip we need.”

Herta will roll off 13th in the Sonsio Grand Prix, with Ericsson and Kirkwood following in 20th and 21st, respectively.