Two-time reigning series champion Alex Palou of Spain won the Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix for the second consecutive year Sunday, besting Mexico’s Pato O’Ward, who started from the pole and finished second.
Christian Lundgaard of Denmark was third.
It was the 13th career victory for Palou, driving the No. 10 DHL Honda Chip Ganassi Racing car. He closed fast to erase a nine-second deficit and overtake O’Ward’s No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, winning by 10.1854 seconds.
“What an amazing weekend,” said Palou, who started third. “We had a really fast car since practice, and everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing on the 10 car executed perfectly. We knew it was aggressive to start with the used reds (alternate tires), and we knew that we were looking toward the end of the race with that 10 car, and we did it.”
Lundgaard, who started second, said, “It’s tough seeing this guy beat us all every single event. We’ve got to find a way to stop him.”
Palou has yet to lose a race in the young season.
Palou had the quickest lap of the weekend, 1:39.5933, during the first segment of qualifying and followed with a top lap of 1:39.6518 to lead the Fast 12 segment. Palou was the last driver on track during the Firestone Fast Six, but team officials told him to back off on his final lap to save his alternate tires for the race Sunday after it was obvious he wasn’t going to surpass O’Ward.
O’Ward turned in his best lap with 1 minute, 45 seconds remaining in Saturday’s final segment of qualifying, completing a lap on the 17-turn, 3.067-mile natural terrain road course in 1 minute, 39.9567 seconds in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
Lundgaard’s best lap in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet during the Firestone Fast Six portion of qualifying was 1:40.1245 to earned his best starting position since last May when he also qualified second for the Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course when he raced for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
This year was the first time the Thermal race was run for points toward the season-long championship. A $1 million exhibition race was run on the course last March with Palou the winner.
Sunday’s 65-lap race began at noon and was televised by Fox.
The next race on the circuit is the 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday, April 13.