MONTEREY, Calif. — Alex Palou is on a roll as he continues to move closer to a fourth NTT IndyCar Series title as he won his fifth NTT P1 Award Saturday.
Palou has a 99-point lead over Pato O’Ward entering Sunday’s Java House Grand Prix of Monterey.
Palou starts on the pole and O’Ward will start on the outside of the front row.
Palou won the pole in the Firestone Fast Six with a fast lap of 1:08.3413 around the 11-turn, 2.238-mile WeatherTech Raceway at Laguna Seca in the No. 10 DHL Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.
“It felt amazing, the car has been amazing in practice one and all qualifying sessions,” Palou said. “It feels great to be on pole here and can’t wait until tomorrow.
“To put everything together in a race in IndyCar is tough, but we will do everything in our power to end up on top.”
The average finish for Palou at Monterey is 1.8.
O’Ward was second at 1:08.6280 in the No. 5 Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren.
“My best starting position, here, we’ll take that,” O’Ward said. “Alex put down a monster lap. He’s the guy we have to beat, and he is starting in front of us so we will see what we have in store tomorrow.”
Colton Herta was third for Andretti Global with a lap at 1:08.8824 in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda.
“It’s OK,” he said. “It was just a little too sloppy for me. Congrats to Alex. That was a pretty fast lap.
“I believe we have something for Alex in the race. I’ll know more after practice in a few hours.”
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden starts on the second row in fourth place, a nice rally for a team that has been struggling this season. His best lap was 1:09.6695 in the No. 2 Chevrolet.
“That was a big step forward for the team,” Newgarden said. “They were here working all night, so we are really proud of our team. To get to the Fast Six is a big gain for all of us.”
Teammate Will Power was fifth in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet at 1:10.0062 followed by David Malukas of AJ Foyt Racing, who had a best time of 1:10.1811 in the No. 4 Chevrolet.
Palou and Dixon were in the first group in Segment One. But it was Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin that put down an early first lap at 1:09.208 to give the other drivers a target to shoot at.
But in the closing minute, Palou jumped to the top at 1:08.665 followed by Christian Lundgaard’s 1:08.839. Felix Rosenqvist jumped over Lundgaard for second at 1:08.832.
Christian Rasmussen had a great last lap through the Corkscrew to take third at 1:08.833.
By the end of the session, the six that advanced to the second round included Palou’s No. 10 Honda, Rosenqvist’s No. 60 Honda, Rasmusen’s No. 21 Chevrolet, Lundgaard’s No. 7 Chevrolet, Colton Herta’s No. 26 Honda at 1:08.865 and Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden’s No. 2 Chevrolet at 1:08.880.
The first driver to miss advancement was McLaughlin.
“We rolled off a little out of the window, we made some improvements, just missed out, it’s frustrating but we made some improvements and look forward to tomorrow,” McLaughlin said.
Another driver that missed moving into the next round was Marcus Ericsson’s No. 28 Andretti Global Honda at 1:09.096.
“A little bit better execution on my part would have helped,” Ericsson said. “It’s small margins in IndyCar these days.”
He was followed by Rinus VeeKay at 1:09.204, Scott Dixon at 1:09.265, Jacob Abel at 1:09.394, Conor Daly (1:09.450) and Robert Shwartzman (1:09.563).
In Group 2, all three Rahal Letterman Lanigan drivers led by Graham Rahal and rookie Louis Foster and Devlin DeFrancesco had the three fastest speeds before Kyffin Simpon turned a 1:09.494.
DeFrancesco lost it coming over the hill of the Corkscrew, went into the air, and spun through the turns. He pulled into the pits.
When Group 2 ended, O’Ward’s No. 5 Chevrolet was the fastest at 1:08.7514, Marcus Armstrong’s No. 66 Honda was second followed by David Malukas’ No. 4 Chevrolet, Will Power’s No. 12 Chevrolet, Louis Foster’s No. 45 Honda and RLL teammate Graham Rahal’s No. 15 Honda.
Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood was among the drivers that didn’t advance.
When the second segment began, Graham Rahal continued to show speed at 1:10.059 with 7:14 left in the session. But a few minutes later, Colton Herta took over No. 1 at 1:09.350.
With 2:19 remaining, Herta was ahead of Malukas (1:09.362), Rosenqvist (1:09.811), Rahal (1:10.059), and Palou (1:10.059).
In the final minute, Palou went to the top at 1:08.594 followed by Rosenqvist at 1:08.633, Newgarden at 1:09.107, Power at 1:09.192, Lundgaard and Foster.
That would shuffle out in the final moments as Rosenqvist went off course heading up the hill to Turn 6. His time was deleted when another driver from behind had to lift.
He went from P2 to 12th.
When the dust settled, Palou was the fastest at 1:08.594 followed by Herta’s 1:08.643, O’Ward’s 1:09.022, Malukas at 1:09.033, Newgarden’s 1:09.107 and Power’s 1:09.192, putting two Team Penske drivers in the Fast Six.
Missing the cut were Christian Lundgaard at 1:09.213, Rahal at 1:09.265, Foster at 1:09.279, Armstrong at 1:09.299, Rasmussen at 1:09.724 and Rosenqvist’s 1:09.811.
That set up the Fast Six.
