"Very surprised" by his pole position at the Indy 500, Álex Palou is aiming for a second consecutive victory

Starting from pole position in the Indianapolis 500 for the second time in his career, Álex Palou surprised himself by setting the fastest time in the final qualifying segment.

Having secured pole position for the first time in 2023 and then won the race in 2025, Álex Palou arrives at the Indianapolis 500 with three wins in six races this season, and once again leading the championship. He is a four-time champion, having won the last three titles. However, while the No. 10 Dallara-Honda immediately showed promise in the early practice sessions this week, running in a pack, the switch to qualifying setup on Friday revealed some weaknesses, despite a second-place finish on the fastest lap list without a tow, behind Scott McLaughlin (Team Penske).

Following the cancellation of Saturday's qualifying session due to rain, everything came down to a single run on Sunday, with the top twelve qualifying for the second qualifying segment. As has often been the case in recent years, Felix Rosenqvist (Meyer Shank Racing) was particularly fast, with a team benefiting from a technical alliance with Palou's Chip Ganassi Racing. The Spaniard was eleventh in this first run, far from imagining pole position three hours later…

“I was very surprised; we didn’t have the speed. Even during Fast Friday, we were constantly trying to extract more speed from the package. It was okay. I think we were in the top five or six, but there were cars like Felix’s that had a huge advantage over everyone else. Even more so in the morning. We barely made it into the Fast 12. But I think it helped us a little. Struggling a bit in those conditions forced us to work hard and set up our car for those conditions, rather than for this morning’s conditions, which I thought were better. And the car in the Fast 6 was incredible.”

Palou did indeed benefit from a draw that, on paper, wouldn't have been in his favor. The defending champion, having to start 31st out of the 33 cars entered, found himself on a track much hotter than when his teammate, Scott Dixon, started first three hours earlier. A hotter track leads to more tire slippage, while the warmer, less dense air produces less downforce. The perfect recipe for limiting speed over the four laps of an Indy 500 run.

However, with the change of schedule due to Saturday's rain, Palou explains that he ultimately found himself in conditions that only improved for him as the runs progressed, while his opponents discovered new difficulties over time: “To get into the Fast 12, we had no margin for error, and we gave it our all. That was our maximum pace at that point. But obviously, I think the track temperature was about 15 degrees [Fahrenheit] warmer than when all those guys went out, because I believe everyone was already in the top 12. So that forced us to work in those conditions, and they were much more similar during the Fast 6. For us, qualifying just kept getting better and faster, while for everyone else, it got slower and more slippery. We saw a lot more mistakes or just drivers who couldn't push to the limit, yes.”

While the pole-sitter has only won 21 times in the history of the Indianapolis 500 (out of 109 editions), starting at the front is often a good omen for the race (which will take place this Sunday starting at 18:45 PM). The Spaniard, however, believes that this is no guarantee of a good result, and his performance in 2023, where he was hit in the pits by Rinus VeeKay after starting from pole and had to fight his way back from the back of the field, is proof of that.

“This doesn’t guarantee us an easier race. It guarantees us the best possible view approaching the first corner, but that’s about it. We have to… we have to work hard to try and stay up there and be at the front when it counts. But yes, I think the race will be a completely different scenario from what we saw on Sunday.”

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