Alex Palou commenced the Month of May by extending his dominant run into the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season and winning the Sonsio Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course on Saturday, May 10.
The reigning three-time IndyCar champion from Barcelona, Spain, led 29 of 85 scheduled laps. He started on pole position, but quickly lost the lead entering the first turn on the first lap to Graham Rahal. After spending the majority of the event trailing Rahal. But managing through two green-flag pit sequences and tire strategies, Palou capitalized on Rahal losing rear tire grip. He finally overtook him for the lead with 28 laps remaining.
His advantage of more than 10 seconds was erased due to David Malukas stalling off the course with 16 laps remaining. Palou, however, maintained the top spot from Pato O’Ward and the field during the following restart with 13 laps remaining. From there, Palou cruised to win an unprecedented fourth time through the first five scheduled events of the 2025 campaign. It was also his third consecutive time at the Indianapolis Road Course event.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring Friday, May 9, Alex Palou notched his second NTT P1 Award of the 2025 season with a pole-winning time in one minute, 9.3417 seconds at 126.625 mph. Joining Palou on the front row was Graham Rahal, the latter of whom clocked in his best qualifying time in one minute, 9.7516 seconds at 125.881 mph.
During the pace laps, Kyffin Simpson was unable to roll off the grid due to a gearbox issue to his No. 8 Journie Rewards/Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda entry, an issue that would prevent him from turning in a single lap. In addition, Josef Newgarden made an unscheduled pit stop to address a radio issue. Despite blending back on the track, he was forced to surrender his sixth-starting spot and start the event at the rear of the field.
Green Flag
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, the field fanned out to multiple lanes through the frontstretch as Graham Rahal drew a side-by-side challenge on pole-sitter Alex Palou for the lead. With a strong move to Palou’s left side, Rahal used the first turn to rocket his No. 15 Fifth Third Bank/Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara-Honda entry ahead with the lead.
As the field behind jostled for early spots, Rahal retained the lead through the remaining 13 turns and he would return to the frontstretch to lead a lap over Palou while Devlin DeFrancesco, rookie Louis Foster, Scott McLaughlin and Pato O’Ward followed suit in the top six.
Behind the field and during the first lap, Callum Ilott and Conor Daly spun in Turn 12 amid contact with one another in the midfield area. In addition, Herta, who had his front wing damaged amid on-track contact, pitted to have his front wing changed along with four fresh tires and fuel inserted to his No. 26 Gainbridge/Andretti Global Dallara-Honda entry. By the time Herta returned to the track, he dropped out of the lead lap category as Rahal retained the lead over Palou by the third lap.
Through the fifth lap, Rahal was leading by more than a second over Palou while DeFrancesco, Foster and McLaughlin were racing in the top five. Behind, O’Ward retained sixth place ahead of Will Power, Alexnader Rossi, Felix Rosenqvist and Santino Ferrucci while Christian Lundgaard, Scott Dixon, Marcus Armstrong, Christian Rasmussen and Nolan Siegel occupied the top-15 spots ahead of Kyle Kirkwood, Rinus VeeKay, Marcus Ericsson, Sting Ray Robb and Newgarden.
A lap later, Ericsson spun in Turn 12 amid contact with David Malukas. Despite limping his No. 28 Fresh Connect Central/Andretti Global Dallara-Honda entry, Ericsson spent multiple laps on oit road due to a mechanical issue. Eventually, his entry would be pushed back to the garage and Ericsson would retire from further competition.
By Lap 10, Rahal extended his lead to more than two seconds over Palou. DeFrancesco, Foster and McLaughlin continued to race in the top five ahead of O’Ward, Power, Rosenqvist, Rossi and Lundgaard. Meanwhile, Dixon trailed in 11th place ahead of Armstrong, Rasmussen, Siegel and Kirkwood while Ferrucci and Newgarden were mired in 16th and 18th, respectively.
On Lap 17 and with the field mired within a first pit window, Palou surrendered the runner-up spot to pit for black, hard tires. By then, select names that included VeeKay and Lundgaard pitted a few laps earlier. Amid the pit stops, Rahal continued to lead while more names that included O’Ward and DeFrancesco pitted their respective entries. Rahal would then pit from the lead for hard tires on Lap 20. By the time Rahal exited pit road, he managed to blend back on the track ahead of Palou. Meanwhile, Marcus Armstrong, who has yet to pit, cycled into the lead.
Just past the Lap 25 mark, Rahal, who cycled back into the lead, retained the top spot by over a hard-charging Palou while McLaughlin, DeFrancesco and O’Ward were in the top five. Earlier, Rosenqvist spun amid light contact with VeeKay in Turn 7, but he proceeded without drawing a caution. As Rahal continued to lead through Lap 30, Palou trailed by six-tenths of a second in the runner-up spot over McLaughin, DeFrancesco and O’Ward while Power, Foster, Lundgaard, Rossi and Dixon trailed in the top 10.
On Lap 41, both Rahal and Palou pitted their respective entries simultaneously under green. Following the pit stops, Rahal, who pitted for the red, soft tires, managed to exit pit road ahead of Palou, the latter of whom pitted for black, hard tires. Both also managed to blend back on the track ahead of McLaughlin, who pitted earlier than the two leaders for hard tires while Herta, who pitted earlier than the trio for soft tires, quickly overtook McLaughlin through the first turn.
On Lap 45, Armstrong pitted from the lead, which allowed Rahal to cycle back into the lead on his red, soft tires. Not long after, Herta un-lapped himself from Rahal while the latter retained the lead by more than a second over Palou. Meanwhile, McLaughlin trailed in third place by more than four seconds while O’Ward fended off Power and Kirkwood to retain fourth place.
The Final Laps
Down to the final 35 laps of the event, Rahal continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over Palou while McLaughlin, O’Ward and Power remained in the top five. As Kirkwood, Dixon, Armstrong, Foster and rossi trailed in the top 10, respectively, Rahal maintained the lead with 30 laps remaining.
Then with 28 laps remaining, Palou gained a huge draft on Rahal for the lead through the frontstretch. Despite Palou’s efforts to crossover on Rahal through the first two turns, the latter would just fend off the former to retain the top spot. Palou would then gain another draft on Rahal through the infield straightaway just past Turn 6 to get beneath Rahal and assume the lead in Turn 7. As Palou led the following lap while lapping Herta in the process, he would extend his advantage to more than two seconds over the next two laps while Rahal, who radioed a loss of rear grip, retained the runner-up spot.
With 23 laps remaining, Rahal, who was being pursued by McLaughlin, pitted for black, hard tires from the runner-up spot and he would endure a slow pit service as he avoided making contact with Kirkwood, the latter of whom was entering his pit stall in front of Rahal. As both O’Ward and McLaughlin pitted a lap later for soft tires, Palou, who has yet to pit, maintained a large advantage before he pitted for soft tires with 20 laps remaining.
Following Palou’s pit stop, Palou was able to blend back onto the track with a large advantage. By the following lap, his advantage stood at eight seconds over O’Ward while Power, who pitted with Palou, was up into third place. Meanwhile, Rahal was mired back in fifth place while McLaughlin was scored in fourth place.
Then with 16 laps remaining, the caution flew when David Malukas pulled his No. 4 AJ Foyt Racing Dallara-Chevrolet entry off the course and stalled just past Turns 8 and 9. The caution all but erased Palou’s advantage of more than 10 seconds over O’Ward while Power, McLaughlin and Rahal were scored in the top five. The caution also snapped a 408 green-flag streak that extends to this year’s season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
The start of the next restart with 13 laps remaining featured Palou fending off O’Ward and the field to retain the lead through the first three turns. Palou would proceed to lead through the infield road course turns and the remaining 10 turns within the circuit before he cycled back to the frontstretch and led the following lap. As O’Ward trailed in the runner-up spot in his No. 5 Arrow McLaren Dallara-Chevrolet entry, Power maintained third place ahead of McLaughlin and Dixon while Rahal dropped to sixth place.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Palou continued to lead by more than two seconds over O’Ward while third-place Power trailed by more than three seconds. Behind, McLaughlin and Dixon maintained their respective top-five spots of fourth and fifth over sixth-place Rahal while Kirkwood, Armstrong, Rinus VeeKay and Foster were in the top 10 ahead of Nolan Siegel, Newgarden, Rosenqvist, Rossi and Lundgaard.
With five laps remaining, Palou stabilized his large advantage of more than four seconds over runner-up O’Ward and by more than five seconds over third-place Power. Behind, McLaughlin and Dixon trailed by seven and nine seconds, respectively, while sixth-place Rahal trailed by 13 seconds.
White Flag
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Palou remained in the lead with a comfortable advantage over O’Ward. Having a large lead to his advantage, Palou was able to smoothly navigate his No. 10 DHL/Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda entry around the Indianapolis Road Course for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch to claim the checkered flag by more than five seconds over O’Ward.
With the victory, Palou became the first competitor to win four of the first five events on an IndyCar schedule since Sébastien Bourdais made the previous accomplishment in 2006. The Spaniard also notched his 15th career win in the IndyCar circuit in his 86th series start and his sixth from pole position.
With a third victory on Indy’s Road Course venue, Palou sets his sights on winning the Indianapolis 500 for a first time in his career this upcoming Memorial Day weekend.
“I cannot describe the amazing season we have so far,” Palou said in Victory Lane on FS1. “I owe everything to the team, Chip Ganassi Racing, my teammates. Everybody that is working behind the scenes to make me look so fast on the track. It’s amazing, it’s unbelievable. Hopefully, we get to stay here [in Victory Lane] again in a couple of weeks for the biggest race of the year.”
Pato O’Ward followed suit in second place for his second podium result of the year. Meanwhile, Will Power, who is coming off back-to-back fifth-place results, recorded his first podium result of the year by finishing in third place.
“We fought hard today,” O’Ward said in the Dex Imaging Media Center. “Hopefully, today was a bit more eventful than the ones in the past. [I] Got to do something to stop [Palou]. They’re just on it. They don’t make a mistake. It’s pretty impressive.”
“It was just a solid day,” Power added. “[I] Didn’t pass anyone on [the] track. [I] Just spent the whole day in a [day where we had] good pit stop strategy and speed and some overcut there at the end, got us a couple of positions. It was a very uneventful day. It was eventful in the car driving hard the whole day. “
Scott McLaughlin settled in fourth place while Scott Dixon claimed fifth place. Graham Rahal, who led a race-high, ended up in sixth place while Marcus Armstrong, Kyle Kirkwood, Rinus VeeKay and Felix Rosenqvist completed the top 10 in the final running order.
Notably, Josef Newgarden rallied from dropping at the rear of the field prior to the start of the event to finish 12th behind rookie Louis Foster while Devlin DeFrancesco fell back to 17th place behind Christian Lundgaard. In addition, Colton Herta, who retired with less than 20 laps remaining due to a mechanical issue, ended up in 25th place in the final running order.
There were seven lead changes for four different leaders. The event featured two cautions for three laps. In addition, 21 of 27 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the fifth event of the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, Alex Palou leads the championship standings by 97 points over Kyle Kirkwood, 98 over Christian Lundgaard, 100 over Pato O’Ward and 111 over Scott McLaughlin.
Results:
1. Alex Palou, 29 laps led
2. Pato O’Ward
3. Will Power
4. Scott McLaughlin
5. Scott Dixon
6. Graham Rahal, 49 laps led
7. Marcus Armstrong, six laps led
8. Kyle Kirkwood
9. Rinus VeeKay
10. Felix Rosenqvist
11. Louis Foster
12. Josef Newgarden
13. Nolan Siegel
14. Alexander Rossi
15. Conor Daly
16. Christian Lundgaard
17. Devlin DeFrancesco, one lap led
18. Robert Shwartzman
19. Christian Rasmussen
20. Santino Ferrucci
21. Sting Ray Robb
22. Callum Ilott, six laps down
23. David Malukas – OUT, Mechanical
24. Jacob Abel – OUT, Mechanical
25. Colton Herta – OUT, Mechanical
26. Marcus Ericsson – OUT, Mechanical
27. Kyffin Simpson – OUT, Mechanical
Next on the 2025 NTT INDYCAR Series schedule is the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The event’s two-day qualifying sessions will occur on May 17-18. The event’s race day is scheduled to occur on May 25 with pre-race coverage to commence at 10 a.m. ET on FOX. The event’s race time start is slated to occur at noon ET.
