IndyCar: Palou schools both McLaren drivers at Thermal Club

It was like taking candy from a baby.  Defending IndyCar champion Alex Palou, driving the #10 Ganassi Honda took both Arrow McLaren drivers, Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard, to school to win the Thermal Club GP NTT IndyCar race.

Following his final pit stop, Palou, on sticker red Firestone tires, passed Lundgaard and then closed an 11-second gap to O’Ward, took the lead, and pulled away to a 10-second win over O’Ward.

This win is two in a row for Palou, who also won the season-opening race in the St. Petersburg GP.

Lundgaard finished 22.7s behind Palou.

Andretti Global Honda driver Colton Herta came home 4th, 35s behind Palou in his #26.

Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the top-5, 40.37s behind Palou.

The race ran caution-free free, and O’Ward led from pole until Palou passed him with 13 laps to go.  The last caution-free race was 72 races ago, at the Indy Road Course in 2020.

Alex Palou

“It’s been incredible, an incredible weekend with lots of speed and perfect execution on pit stop, strategy. At the beginning starting on used reds, we didn’t know if they were going to make it five laps, 10 or 15.”

“It is a little surreal that I have won the first two races of the year after winning back-to-back titles.  Even to win the first race of the year at St. Pete, it felt amazing. You always go
through a weekend wanting to win, never expecting to win, but maybe expecting to fight.”

“Yeah, I mean, there’s so many stuff that needs to go right in order to win an INDYCAR race. All the pit stops, your tire mileage, also fuel mileage. There’s so much stuff that needs to go right that it’s tough to get it. It’s amazing to start with a double win this season, so yeah. Super happy today.”

Pato O’Ward

Pato O’Ward had the best and worst day.  After leading all those laps, he was passed by Palou.  The young Mexican spoke about his disappointment with loosing the lead at the end to Palou.

“I hate to whine about it, but it sucks to be the leader. All of our Chevy affiliate teams are worthless with helping when a Chevy leader is coming up on them. Honda seem to work as a team very, very well because Foster was doing everything in his power to keep me behind. Palou gets right behind him, and he just lets him cruise by.”

“We ran a red, black, black, black race. I think it should have been a red, red, black, black or any sort of combination with two reds and two blacks. I think we missed it on the 5 car. We can only see why we chose that, try not to make that mistake again.”

“Either way, I still think Palou would have gotten us sooner or later.  Sticker set of red tires. That was the answer for losing the lead.”

Christian Lundgaard

Pato’s teammate also ran second for most of the race until lap 47.

“Yeah, I  knew I lost that fight. Palou was out on the sticker set of alternates at the end of the race. I was on a sticker set of primes. I knew he was going to have the advantage.”

“I knew Pato was five seconds up the road, so I tried to make him lose as much time fairly as possible. We had some fun, but it didn’t really seem to bother him (Palou).”

“But I think in terms of strategy,  we did what we could. I’m still a little doubtful why we went new stickers on the second stint instead of trying to do a little bit like Alex (Palou)
did, but it’s always easy to be smart after the fact.”

Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix Results

Lucille Dust reporting  live from the Thermal Club