Palou started third in his Chip Ganassi Racing entry but was into the lead before the end of the first lap, having taken advantage of the extra grip from the red-sidewalled Firestones. He went on to lead 52 of the 85 laps, and was able to outpace polesitter Christian Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan and

The seven-time champion is out of contract at the end of this year, but he and Mercedes are already in discussions about extending their deal. At last weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff suggested that it was only a matter of agreeing on finances for things to get across the line. “It’s

Palou’s team played the tire strategy perfectly to allow the 2021 champion to lead 52 of the 85 laps, while McLaren team-mates Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi were able to pass Lundgaard’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan car to complete the podium. Lundgaard and fellow front row starter Felix Rosenqvist (McLaren) elected to start the race on

On the track where he qualified fourth on his IndyCar debut in 2021, and scored his first podium last year, Lundgaard delivered a brilliant pole by 0.0027s from Felix Rosenqvist (Arrow McLaren). Lundgaard’s pole capped a strong day for his RLL team as Jack Harvey qualified fourth and Graham Rahal eighth, comfortably its best showing

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver took his first series pole with a 1m09.3321s on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. He topped Group 1 in the first part of qualifying with a 1m09.4639s before he was pipped to the top spot in Q2 by Arrow McLaren driver Alex Palou by 0.02s. But progressing to the

With the entire field working on setups for primary tyres, the times were remarkably close in the first 25 minutes. Felix Rosenqvist, who has taken two poles on the Indy road course, was top for Arrow McLaren with a 1m10.4167s, until with 17 minutes to go he was deposed by Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi

Inevitably the rookies hit the track first, using their extra set of Firestone primaries, but then it was the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team who sprung to the fore, with first Christian Lundgaard and then Jack Harvey hitting the top of the times. Harvey, who scored his only IndyCar podium on the 2.439-mile road course in

In the rolling hills north of Los Angeles, next door to a movie lot, Honda’s American motorsport division HPD has produced some of the most potent engines in US motorsport; powerplants that have claimed 18 IndyCar championships and 15 Indianapolis 500 wins, along with a surfeit of sportscar titles and a trio of overall Daytona

McLaughlin on fresher tyres and no fuel worries was able to pounce on the two-stopping polesitter Romain Grosjean when the Frenchman ran wide at Turn 5 on Lap 72, shortly after running out of push-to-pass boost. McLaughlin drew alongside him on corner exit, and the Chevrolet easily out-accelerated the Honda-powered Andretti Autosport machine along the long

After fending off fellow two-stoppers Pato O’Ward and Alex Palou in the opening laps, polesitter Grosjean controlled the opening stint. But Sting Ray Robb’s Dale Coyne Racing with RWR car ground to a halt just a few laps after the first of former Formula 1 driver Grosjean’s two stops, and it also prompted the fastest

Grosjean led Alex Palou away but Pato O’Ward was inside Palou into Turn 1 – however, when O’Ward also tried to get around Grosjean at Turn 5 he lost momentum, and Palou was able to draft by him into Turn 8 to reclaim second. Further back, Scott Dixon got around McLaughlin, as all three Penske

The 2.3-mile 17-turn track has hosted IndyCar since 2010 and has become one of the favourite venues among fans and drivers for its undulating nature, which creates turns that demand great commitment from the drivers but also present great sight-lines for spectators. The multi-year extension coincides with the new multi-year agreement between Medical Properties Trust/Children’s

Andretti Autosport’s Grosjean was fastest initially in the top six pole shootout with a 1m06.0289s, 0.0341s ahead of Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren, but on fresher tyres Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin displaced him at the head of the times. However, Grosjean, who lost an engine yesterday, delivered a 1m05.8396s with his fourth lap and it was

Yesterday’s pacesetter McLaughlin wasted no time in flirting with the 1m06-second barrier, getting down to a 1m07.0036s on his third lap and then broke through it with a 1m06.7282s on his fifth lap.With 36 minutes to go, his nearest challenger became team-mate Newgarden, just 0.0053s behind, but Christian Lundgaard and Graham Rahal were an encouraging

Inevitably, after a warm-up lap at the start of the session, the veterans parked and let the rookies use their extra set of primary tyres to clean the track and add grip to the surface already christened with Firestone rubber thanks to the Indy NXT cars on track earlier in the afternoon. Despite a lurid

Jim Hurtubise was the man who warned them all. He set a four-lap qualifying average of 149.056mph on the fourth day of time trials for the 1960 Indianapolis 500 – a new record and about 2.5mph faster than Eddie Sachs’s polewinning average from a week earlier. Then he informed anyone who’d listen that there was

The car is a one-off build – which looks like a reimagining of a Group B rally car – and was conceptualised by the engineering brainboxes at Honda Performance Development in Santa Clarita, California.  Built at Honda’s Automotive Development Center in Ohio by the Honda of America Racing Team, ‘The Beast’ is being unleashed in the

Traditionally, just 33 cars start the Indianapolis 500, with any extra entries having to go through Bump Day during the qualifying weekend to bag a place on the starting grid. The last time this happened was in 2021. Abel will be on the back foot since all its rivals took part in Friday’s open test

The two-time IndyCar champion lapped the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 227.686mph, 0.9mph ahead of 2008 Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon. That’s the way it remained until very late in the session when 1Conor Daly sprung into the 227s, laying down a 227.466mph lap in his Ed Carpenter Racing entry. Behind Dixon was Long Beach

After half an hour of the first two-hour session for the Indy 500 veterans, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Ericsson sat at the top of the speed charts. Having lapped the 2.5-mile course in 40.1194s, 224.330mph, last year’s Indy 500 winner was over one mile per hour clear of Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport and Dale Coyne Racing’s

These days, team owner Michael Andretti is far more comfortable sitting in front of the media than he ever was as a driver, but still, it’s not his favourite activity. So it was a pleasant surprise to see him twice visit the Long Beach media centre last weekend. But he had good reason: at this