{"id":24688,"date":"2025-07-26T23:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T23:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/24688\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T23:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T23:38:08","slug":"alex-palou-grabs-indycar-pole-at-laguna-seca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/24688\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Palou grabs IndyCar pole at Laguna Seca"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>IndyCar headed out for qualifying at Laguna Seca just before noon local time, with a tricky prospect facing teams and drivers alike.<\/p>\n<p>The morning\u2019s practice was cancelled due to fog grounding the medical helicopter, meaning all the time normally spent tuning cars for qualifying was wiped off the board.<\/p>\n<p>A slick track surface compounded issues, and gave all 27 drivers plenty to think about as they lapped the 2.24-mile course.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/2025\/07\/26\/indycar-laguna-seca-qualifying-results-3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">IndyCar Laguna Seca \u2013 Full Qualifying Results<\/a><\/p>\n<p>After looking strong all session, Alex Palou set the fastest time in the final round and secured his fifth pole of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Palou lapped the historic track in 1:08.3413, over a quarter of a second faster than every other driver.<\/p>\n<p>Pato O\u2019Ward also showed pace from the outset of the weekend, but came up just a bit short. He placed his #5 Arrow McLaren Chevy on the outside of the front row.<\/p>\n<p>Colton Herta set the third best time, giving Andretti Global representation high on the grid at a track where the Andretti name carries so much history.<\/p>\n<p>A pair of Team Penske drivers filled the next positions, with Josef Newgarden and Will Power qualifying fourth and fifth respectively.<\/p>\n<p>David Malukas rounded out the Fast Six as he chases his third consecutive top 10 finish in his AJ Foyt entry.<\/p>\n<p>Knocked out<\/p>\n<p>Felix Rosenqvist looked set to advance easily into the final round, but a pair of mistakes at Turn 5 undid his ambitions.<\/p>\n<p>His trips through the gravel caused local yellows to be displayed, which interrupted others on their fast laps.<\/p>\n<p>Due to this, Rosenqvist was given a penalty and his fast time was deleted. He will start from 12th.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2025-07_63-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-217503\"  \/>McLaughlin dipped a wheel in the gravel at one point. Photo: Kevin Dejewski<\/p>\n<p>Scott McLaughlin very nearly joined his Penske team-mates at the front portion of the field, but he was knocked out in the last second by Christian Rasmussen.<\/p>\n<p>McLaughlin will start from 13th as he attempts to help turn his team\u2019s fortunes around.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for the Andretti Global crew, they had two drivers eliminated in the first round.<\/p>\n<p>Marcus Ericsson was only able to earn the 15th starting position, and Kyle Kirkwood\u2019s gamble on a late fast lap were undone by traffic. He will start in 18th.<\/p>\n<p>Devlin DeFrancesco spun at one point in the first round, and had a tough time getting going again.<\/p>\n<p>He eventually did get on his way, doing so just quickly enough to not cause a red flag. He will start from the 27th and final position, however.<\/p>\n<p>Drivers will have a short warm-up session Saturday afternoon, followed by Sunday\u2019s race which take place a noon pacific time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IndyCar headed out for qualifying at Laguna Seca just before noon local time, with a tricky prospect facing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,5856,24349,24350,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-24688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-indycar","tag-javahousegp","tag-lagunaseca","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}