Month of May excitement building with Sonsio Grand Prix on Saturday
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Sonsio Grand Prix returns to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 11th running of the race this weekend.
Qualifications are on Friday and the green flag will be raised on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
The Sonsio Grand Prix marks the first racing event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this month and the drivers are excited to get started.
“It’s always that anticipation feeling when you lead into May,” Felix Rosenqvist said at Saturday’s Rev event. “You know, we have the GP (Grand Prix) next week and from there on it’s just going to be flat out until the finish flag at the 500. But, (I’m) super excited.”
The Grand Prix runs just 85 laps with a 2.439-mile track that uses parts of Turn 1 and Turn 2 of the usual oval and runs through the infield as well. Instead of just four turns on the main oval track, the Grand Prix has 14 total turns.
Simon Pagenaud won the first running of the race in 2014. He is one of two drivers to win the race multiple times. He won in 2014 and 2019 and Will Power won three times, in 2015, and back-to-back wins in 2017 and 2018.
Álex Palou is the reigning champion, leading 52 of the 85 laps. Winning the Grand Prix helped Palou win the Indycar Series Championship last year. He’ll look to become the second back-to-back champion in the short history of the Grand Prix.
Pagenaud and Power are the only two drivers to win the Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500 in the same year. Power won both races in 2018 and Pagenaud did the same in 2019.
Despite their success in the race, both Power and Pagenaud finished outside the top 10 last year. Power placed 12th and Pagenaud did not finish the race, completing just 58 laps due to mechanical problems.
After the Grand Prix this weekend, all the attention turns to the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, the Indianapolis 500.