The Indianapolis Grand Prix brought different strategies, lead changes, and a caution, which hasn’t happened since the season opener.
With that being said, the second race in the very jam-packed month of May ended very similarly to the first, with Alex Palou taking the victory.
Alex Palou Pounces Perfectly in Indianapolis
For the fourth time this season, Alex Palou took the checkered flag, this time at the Indianapolis Grand Prix, where he has now won three years in a row, a feat no driver has ever done.
After putting it on pole on Saturday by 0.4099s over Graham Rahal, Palou looked to keep himself in P1, but that didn’t last long, with the veteran using his tire advantage to take the lead out of turn 1. It stayed like this through the entire first round and most of the second round of pit stops.
Palou stayed with Rahal the entire time, never losing sight of the #15 car ahead. Before the second round of pit stops, Palou was able to find pace in his hard tires and easily took back the lead on lap 58.
Alex Palou makes the pass for the lead! #IndyGP #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/p2w4wOK27m
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 10, 2025
After that, he didn’t look back.
He finished 5.4840-second ahead of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Honda of Pato O’Ward.
Back on the Podium
Joining Palou on the podium were Pato O’Ward and Will Power, finishing second and third, respectively. Those two names were consistently in the conversation last year, but so far this season, their results have been up and down. After crashing out in St. Pete, Power has had a steady climb up, showing a 6th and two 5ths and now a 3rd.
O’Ward earned a second at Thermal, but since then, he hasn’t been in the top 5, finishing 13th in Long Beach and 6th in Alabama. On the Indianapolis road course, the duo started 7th and 8th on the grid and made their way up with some key overtakes and the beneficial strategy.
Graham Rahal Excites:
Rahal was a man on a mission in the Indy Grand Prix. After qualifying in second, behind the championship leader, Palou, Rahal took no time to put himself into the lead.
With new softs on his No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing car, and used softs on Palou’s Chip Ganassi, the veteran used his tire advantage straight away with an overtake on the outside of turn one.
He kept the lead through the first round and most of the second round of pit stops. It was no easy task keeping Palou behind. He had to deal with the traffic and dirty air from the lapped car of Jacob Abel. He also had to deal with the strategy that, in hindsight, wasn’t the best idea; it probably cost him a podium. On his third and final pit stop, Rahal pitted onto hard tires while the rest at the front switched to the faster softs.
A victory today would’ve been his first since the 2017 Detroit Grand Prix.
READ MORE: IndyCar: Rahal thrills with pole at IMS
Other Notable Moments
Palou’s 5.4840-second could have been bigger if it wasn’t for a misfortune by David Malukas, which saw him beach his #4 AJ Foyt car on the grass, bringing out a caution with 16 laps to go, something that hasn’t happened since lap one of the season opener. That’s 408 green flag laps in a row.
The yellow caused the field to bunch up, and fans were hoping to see a battle for the win in the closing laps, but unfortunately, Palou was just too dominant. The Spaniard was able to create a 2-second gap away from Pato in 4 laps.
READ NEXT: Alex Palou Takes Home The Win At The IndyCar Grand Prix of Alabama
Main Photo: IMAGO/ Zuma Press Wire
Recording Date: 5/10/2025
