IndyCar drivers react to Friday’s qualifying for the Sonsio Grand Prix

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — NTT IndyCar Series driver Alex Palou found plenty of success last May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

He won the grand prix on the IMS road course before winning the pole for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500.

On Friday, he started off this year’s Month of May on a positive note, capturing the pole for Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix on the IMS road course.

“Team did an amazing job and looking forward to it tomorrow,” said Palou.

It’s Palou’s first-career pole on the IMS road course.

“It’s really tough to get poles nowadays in IndyCar,” Palou said. “And we started really slow today. We started struggling quite a lot (in) practice one. (In) practice two, improved a bit, but didn’t feel great.”

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard will start second on Saturday. His fast lap was just .0917 slower than Palou’s fast lap.

Will Power, Josef Newgarden, Pato O’Ward, and Scott Dixon will start third through sixth, respectively, after each making the Firestone Fast Six.

“It just feels like everybody takes that little, next step every, single year,” O’Ward said. “All things considered, we didn’t start the day so strong so I’m actually pretty pleased that we had an opportunity to get the car in the Fast Six.”

The Sonsio Grand Prix is set to begin at 3:30 p.m. EDT.