Palou Pummels Again! Will Start On Pole For Sonsio GP
Palou Pummels Again! Will Start On Pole For Sonsio Grand Prix
SPEEDWAY, Ind. — For the second weekend in a row, Alex Palou, who is already leading the championship and in number of wins this season, will lead the field to the green flag.
Palou dominated the Firestone Fast 6 of qualifying for the Sonsio Grand Prix on the IMS Road Course on Friday. His lap of 1:09.341 was tops of the day. This will mark the eighth time in his career that Palou will start from the pole position in and IndyCar race.
“Just amazing,” Palou said. “Being here again feels sweet. The car had been fast all day, but we had some struggles. Lots of drivers were locking up their tires, including me.”
A big surprise on the day, though, was Graham Rahal. He and his entire Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing team were fast all day long. In fact, Rahal topped the second practice session that happened earlier in the afternoon. He was joined by the upstart rookie and his RLL teammate Louis Foster in the Fast 6. Finally, even more of surprise was Devlin DeFrancesco.
DeFrancesco did well in this race two years ago and appears to have picked up some where he left off. He qualified fifth, which is his first time this season starting inside the top ten. and his best career start which was on the IMS road course. It was also the first time ever that all three RLL cars made it to the Fast 6.
“A huge day for us,” Rahal said. “Coming into this weekend, we expected to be good here. We battled hard today, and we made a lot of improvements. There was a lot of feedback between all three of us. I wish we could take what works here and bring it to every track, but we are super happy to have all three in the top five.”
Team Penske showed some promising pace as well, with Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden qualifying fourth and sixth, respectively, to round out the first three rows.
A noticeable absence from the Fast 6 were the Arrow McLaren and Andretti cars. Pato O’Ward had shown pace in the first two round of qualifying, but was unable to make it our of Round Two. His teammate Christian Lundgaard, who is second in the points coming into the weekend, also failed to advance.
Colton Herta, another favorite for the race. did not make out of Q1. Qualifying spots have not been an issue for Herta in the past on the IMS road course. He won this races a few years ago after having started 14th.
Heading into race day, drivers will once again have to contend with the rewritten tire rules put forth by IndyCar at Barber. Drivers must use two sets of each tire, one of each set being new.
“I have no idea how (the rule change) will impact the racing,” Palou said. “You’re just going to have to do it again. All the drivers have a preference for what tire they want to run, always. I don’t know what it will do, but it might mix up something. Hopefully not on our end, though. It may make some strategies a bit crazy.”
Because of the rule, Palou will be forced to use a set of tires on which he locked up during qualifying. This means he will be driving on one tire with a flat spot on it.
“I will be crying during that stint tomorrow,” Palou said.
The Sonsio Grand Prix will go off tomorrow at 4:30 pm. Be sure to tune into 93 WIBC for wall-to-wall coverage starting at 3 pm.
Palou Pummels Again! Will Start On Pole For Sonsio Grand Prix was originally published on ronewibc.staging.go.ione.nyc