IndyCar: Palou wins Indy GP with strategy and pace

Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou took victory at the Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, cementing his lead in the IndyCar championship. The Spaniard, who started from pole position, faced a race marked by tire strategies and a rare safety car intervention, but maintained control to secure his fourth victory of the 2025 season.

The race began with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal taking the lead into the first corner after an aggressive start. Rahal held the lead consistently for much of the race, taking advantage of the tire rule that required drivers to use two sets of soft and two sets of hard compounds. Team strategy was key, with teams switching between new and used tires throughout the 85 laps.

Rahal led safely until the penultimate round of pit stops, when he opted for used soft tyres, while Palou chose fresh hard compounds. In the second half of the stint, Palou found better performance and passed Rahal for the lead. Rahal's situation worsened at the final stop, when a team error resulted in a slow exit from the pits, dropping him to fifth.

The race was changed by a yellow flag, the first intervention by the safety car since the opening lap of the season in St. Petersburg. The incident, which occurred in the final phase of the race, regrouped the field and brought Pato O'Ward, Will Power and Scott McLaughlin into the fight for the top positions. At the restart, O'Ward tried to pressure Palou, but the Spaniard, with a well-tuned car and new soft tires, quickly opened up a significant lead, neutralizing any threat.

The top five positions remained stable after the restart, with only one change as Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon edged past Rahal to take fifth place. Palou crossed the line with a comfortable margin, followed by O'Ward, Power, McLaughlin and Dixon.

With the result, Palou extends his championship lead to a gap of more than one race in points over second-place Christian Lundgaard. Palou's only loss of the season so far came at the Long Beach Grand Prix, where he failed to convert pole position into victory. Next up in the IndyCar Series is the 109th Indianapolis 500 on May 25, where Palou will look to continue his dominance this season and claim his first victory on an oval track.