achieves his second pole in the Indianapolis 500

Alex Palou it’s no longer just him IndyCar champion nor the first Spaniard to win the 500 Miles. Now start dominate Indianapolis like the great legends of the oval. The Catalan pilot achieved a new pole for the most famous race in the world and confirmed that, today, no one seems capable of arguing with him throne in the United States.

To his four championships and the winner’s ring of the 2026 Indianapolis 500, Palou adds now that he is pole position twice in the most prestigious race on the planet. Today has repeated his 2023 feat after overcoming an intractable Rosenqvist who had been the fastest consistently since Friday… but who fell at the key moment: in the decisive phase.

Indianapolis already has a new king

Palou took his second pole in the Indy 500 (and the $100,000 he carries with him) after a simply sidereal final round: 232,848, 232,347, 231,845 and 231,955 for an unbeatable average of 232,248 miles per hour (373.7 km/h). They knew they had speed… but maybe not that much.

“These guys are to blame, They have done an incredible job“he said euphorically, pointing to his equipmentwhich led him to an unexpected triumph, as he himself recognized. “We didn’t expect to have so much speed, remember that we started 11th… Maybe leaving on the 31st – thanks to my wife for getting the number – has allowed us this. It was unexpected, this morning we didn’t think about it so we will have to celebrate it well,” he said

From suffering to pole glory

Palou went from less to more throughout Sunday… in a in crescendo that was even enough to defeat an immeasurable Félix Rosenqvist. The Swede was the fastest (by length) in the first phase; the fastest (also in length, but less compared to Palou) in the Fast 12 and, when it seemed that the glory was his, the cannibal appeared to steal the pole.

Before that, the champion and last winner of the Indy 500 He had suffered (and a lot) to get into the top 12 in his guaranteed attempt with which it all began. He suffered not because of his lack of skill or the lack of speed of his car, but for the moment when he had to leave to track. Friday night’s draw gave him the 31st place to do it, with the hottest track of all favorites. And that in the Indy 500 is synonymous with difficulties.

And he had them, because was classified 11thto the limit. But for the final two phases it was an advantage. Because Palou went to Fast 12 with very similar conditions to that of his first attempt and was comfortable. So much so that jumped from 11th… to 2nd (thanks to a large batch of 231.665 mph, 372.8 km/h). The rest of the classified drivers did not know how to adapt to such a hot track (their previous attempt was with the cooler track, since most of them started at the beginning)… and they were shipwrecked.

On that road to Fast 6 they were ‘coconuts’ like Scott McLaughlin (the big favorite along with Rosenqvist)… or Scott Dixon. But not Palou, who came out to fight the decisive round (against Malukas, Ferrucci, O’Ward and Rossi) in penultimate place, only behind Rosenqvist.

The feat that Álex Palou is now pursuing

Palou played it (because only by making arrests can you get a pole in Indianapolis) and he took the glory. And you will now have a wonderful opportunity to achieve something very rare: two consecutive victories in the 500 Miles. But that will be in another episode.

Because The classification is only the first part of the road. Tomorrow the second begins: the final preparation for the race with the penultimate testing session (in which the majority will debut the race engine – not the Hondas, which already used it in qualifying). Afterwards only the last one will remain for Carb Day (Friday)…and everything will be ready for 110th edition of the Indy 500.