INDIANAPOLIS — Alex Palou made it two in a row on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, winning the Sonsio Grand Prix from the pole position.
The defending series champion, who won this race a year ago by nearly 17 seconds, beat Christian Lundgaard out of the pits near the midpoint, took the lead a few laps later and was in control from there.
Palou won by 6.8106 seconds over Will Power. After losing the lead on the first lap to Lundgaard, Palou told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider it was “100 percent” a team effort as his No. 10 Dallara-Honda pit crew got him back in front.
RACE RESULTS: Click here for the finishing order
“Everybody all the engineers, the mechanics did an amazing jobs in the pits and gave me the lead back,” Palou said. “It was an amazing win, and it’s great to be back to back from last year.
“A win helps a lot. Especially a pole and a win. We’re going to celebrate for sure. This afternoon, we switch the focus to the big one.”
Get out the broom! 🧹
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 11, 2024
@AlexPalou wins the #INDYGP and sweeps the weekend!
#INDYCAR // @CGRTeams pic.twitter.com/djNIOltlOW
That was a reference to the 108th Indy 500, which Palou started from the pole position last year. He will enter this year’s race as the championship leader, taking a 12-point lead over Power with his 10th career victory and his first since Portland last Sept. 3 (though he did win the $1 Million Challenge exhibition in March).
Power, meanwhile, remained winless since June 2022 after his second consecutive runner-up finish.
“You do get sick of finishing second,” Power told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee. “Oh my God. You’re just racing very tough people. If you’re not exactly perfect, you won’t win. I wasn’t exactly perfect during qualifying. We didn’t win.
“I’m looking forward to the (Indy) 500. Chevy’s done a really good job, and I’m looking forward to fighting for the pole and a win.”
Lundgaard finished third, followed by Scott Dixon and Marcus Armstong, giving Chip Ganassi Racing three of the top five spots.
“They’re all team wins,” team owner Chip Ganassi told Snider. “Three guys in the top five. It’s a big way to enter the month of May. Momentum is real. Momentum is your friend. Unquestionably, it’s about the team. We’ve got great guys in engineering and management. I’m a lucky guy.”
Rebounding from mediocre qualifying efforts were Scott McLaughlin (13th to sixth) and Colton Herta (24th) to seventh, who still was seething after the race at teammate Marcus Ericsson for being run off course on the first lap. Herta had entered leading the points standings but left in a tie for third, 25 points behind Palou.
“Your teammate is leading the championship, and you race him like an ass like that,” Herta told Lee. “I don’t know what you’re thinking. He probably broke deeper than in qualifying right there, and he runs me clean off the track. You’ve got to be smarter than that, man. So, so dumb. I’ll let him know what I feel, yeah.”
Lap 55 — Ferrucci first out
There apparently will be no postrace continuation of the Santino Ferrucci-Romain Grosjean feud.
Ferrucci became the first driver out of the Sonsio Grand Prix, retiring his No. 14 Dallara-Chevrolet with 30 laps remaining on Lap 55 with a mechanical problem related to his brakes.
“We felt it best to retire the car,” Ferrucci told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee. “We don’t want to hurt anything going into the (Indy 500).”
The A.J. Foyt Racing driver and team now will turn their focus to the 108th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, where Ferrucci has had tremendous success. The Woodbury, Connecticut, native finished a career-best third in the Indy 500 last season, one of five top 10s in five starts on the 2.5-mile oval at the Brickyard.
Ferrucci’s average finish of 6.0 in the Indy 500 ranks best among active drivers, according to NBC Sports statistician Russ Thompson.
Lap 45 — Palou back to lead
Using crafty strategy and a swift pit stop, pole-sitter Alex Palou is back in control of the Sonsio Grand Prix just past the halfway point of the 85-lap event.
The defending series champion cycled into the lead just before his second green-flag stop on Lap 41.
Palou exited the pits just in front of Christian Lundgaard, who led 35 of the first 40 laps on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
After pit stops from the lead by Alexander Rossi, Pietro Fittipaldi and Scott McLaughlin, Palou moved back into the lead on Lap 45. With 40 laps remaining, the Chip Ganassi Racing star seems well positioned for winning on the IMS road course for the second consecutive year.
Last season, Palou won by nearly 17 seconds at this track, kicking off a stretch of four victories in five races during the charge to his second IndyCar championship.
Lap 30 — Lundgaard in control
Christian Lundgaard has settled into the lead through 30 laps of the Sonsio Grand Prix after a chaotic start at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver leads by nearly two seconds over Will Power (who has a series-high five victories on this layout). Pole-sitter Alex Palou is third, followed by Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon and Marcus Armstrong.
Lundgaard made his IndyCar career debut on the IMS road course in 2021, qualifying an impressive fourth that helped him earn a full-time ride at RLL.
The 2022 IndyCar Rookie of the Year broke through for his first career victory last July at Toronto and is one of the most attractive impending free agents in the series.
Lundgaard said he has talked to all of the top teams about next season but also wants to give Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing a chance to keep him.
Follow along here for live updates during the Sonsio Grand Prix, which you can watch live on NBC and Peacock.
L10 — Angry drivers and contact
The first 10 laps of the Sonsio Grand Prix featured some teammate-on-teammate crime and the continuation of the current Feud of the NTT IndyCar Series.
After running Romain Grosjean into the grass during the prerace warmup session (as an admitted payback for an incident at Barber Motorsports Park), Santino Ferrucci again hip-checked the Formula One veteran on the third lap of the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
The near-collision happened while Grosjean was attempting to pass Ferrucci for 17th. Instead, the Frenchman fell five spots to 23rd.
“What the (expletive),” Grosjean radioed his team. “What the (expletive)? What can I do, guys?”
That didn't take long 😬
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 11, 2024
📺: NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/tXebKfUsbK
There was no penalty for Ferrucci, but IndyCar stewards penalized Marcus Ericsson for making contact with Andretti Global teammate Colton Herta in the fourth turn of the first lap.
“Marcus just crashed me.” Herta radioed his crew before following with a stream of expletives directed at the 2022 Indy 500 winner who joined Andretti Global this season.
Ericsson was ordered to give up five positions for an avoidable contact violation and fell to 21st, one spot behind
Herta.
"Let's get settled down."@ColtonHerta is NOT happy after that incident with teammate @Ericsson_Marcus.
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 11, 2024
📺: NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/PFq7lpgbWz
Meanwhile at the front, Christian Lundgaard passed pole-sitter Alex Palou for the lead in the first turn and led the first 18 laps before pitting under green.
Prerace storylines
After an eventful Saturday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the NTT IndyCar Series is set for the green flag at the Brickyard with the Sonsio Grand Prix (3 p.m. ET, NBC and streaming on Peacock).
The 85-lap race on the 14-turn, 2.39-mile road course will punctuate the first of three consecutive weekends of race cars zooming around Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Practice for the 108th running of the Indy 500 will begin Tuesday, leading into qualifying May 18-19 for the main event May 26.
Alex Palou will start on the pole position Saturday of a race that the defending series champion won by nearly 17 seconds last year.
Some major storylines erupted in the 30-minute warmup session that took place four hours before the race. Santino Ferrucci of A.J. Foyt Racing nearly collided with Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Romain Grosjean.
Ferrucci, who also threw an obscene gesture at Grosjean, told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee that it was payback because Grosjean “drove into me at Barber in the warmup for no reason. I’m simply just returning the favor, my friend. It’s not Formula One anymore. With these cars, you can hit people and be fine. You want to turn into me when I have the inside, I’m not lifting. I’m sorry. So I had the corner. And yeah, that’s on him. He doesn’t like it, then come over here and talk to me about it.
“Honestly, I don’t really have a beef with the guy. He’s a nice dude, but you’ve got to have a little bit more respect for your competitors on track. No sense banging wheels with me in Barber. I’m on the inside this time. It’s my corner, and you want to turn into me, then so be it. Like I said, I’m not lifting.”
During Saturday’s prerace show, Ferrucci told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider that Grosjean hadn’t approached him after the warmup. Ferrucci also reiterated that his style is “you mess with the bull, you get the horns.”
In an interview with Lee, Grosjean said he’d put the incident behind and was “more focused on getting a good race car. It’s been not an easy weekend for us. There’s a lot of people in the grandstands, and that’s great to see.
“What happens this morning, I don’t really care. What happens now and going forward is what matters.”
"If he doesn't like it, come over here and talk to me about it."@SantinoFerrucci gives his take on this morning's incident with @RGrosjean.#INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/hABkhm96r0
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 11, 2024
The warmup ended a few minutes early because of an engine failure in the No. 5 Dallara-Chevrolet of Pato O’Ward that put fluid on the track. Arrow McLaren changed O’Ward’s engine as well as teammate Alexander Rossi’s No. 7 as a precautionary measure.
Two Dallara-Honda drivers (Graham Rahal and Marcus Armstrong) changed engines after problems in practice Friday.