Palou scores first IndyCar street circuit pole in Detroit

A week after starting on pole at the Indianapolis 500, Alex Palou scored his first NTT IndyCar Series pole on a street circuit on the streets of Detroit.

The Spaniard turned a fastest lap of 1:01.8592s to average 95.734 mph on the nine-turn, 1.645-mile circuit.

Second fastest was New Zealand’s own Scott McLaughlin, 0.3s slower than Palou.

“That was a good lap,” Palou said.

“We had a lot of speed since Practice 1. The track evolved a lot, but it seemed like our car kept on evolving, even during qualifying. I just had lots of confidence to go out there.

“I thought it was going to be a bit tighter in the Fast Six. So yeah, pretty happy that we were able to get that first pole position on a street course.”

Romain Grosjean and Scott Dixon make up the second row ahead of Josef Newgarden and Marcus Ericsson.

The first group of Round 1 had 13 cars and New Zealand’s own Marcus Armstrong led Grosjean, Palou, Australia’s Will Power, Simon Pagenaud and Felix Rosenqvist into the second round of qualifying.

The group was clean other than Helio Castroneves spinning the #06 Meyer Shank Racing Honda. 

By causing a local yellow, Castroneves lost his fastest lap to that point in the session.

In the second group for Round 1, two drivers had session-ending wall contact.

Colton Herta hit the wall on the outside of Turn 7, damaging some right rear suspension. The #26 Andretti Autosport crew were unable to replace the components before the session ended. 

At the same corner shortly thereafter, Christian Lundgaard hit the wall at the apex of the corner, damaging the left front suspension and instantly deflating the left front tire.

Neither Herta, nor Lundgaard advanced to the second round of qualifying but Kyle Kirkwood, McLaughlin, Pato O’Ward, Dixon, Ericsson and Newgarden did.

In the second round of qualifying, Kirkwood did the same thing Lundgaard did in the first round, hitting the wall at the Turn 7 apex with the left front corner of the car.

With damaged suspension, the #27 Andretti Autosport Honda went to pit road.

“I’m disappointed for the crew because that was a pole-winning car, no doubt,” Kirkwood said.

“I barely touched the wall, like barely touched it, I touched it way harder in all the practices. It’s just like the angle at which the wall was right there, I caught the point and it just ripped the front off the car.

“If the wall was rounded, that wouldn’t have happened. It’s just so unfortunate for the guys, it’s mostly my mistake.”

Kirkwood would end up 12th.

Also not advancing were Power, Pagenaud, Rosenqvist, O’Ward and Armstrong, who start seventh through 11th, respectively. Power failed to advance after Dixon knocked the 2022 IndyCar Series champion out of the Fast Six after the checkered flag came out for Round 2.

As the Fast Six began, both Grosjean and Ericsson missed their braking point and went into the Turn 8 runoff.

Because both drivers caused a local yellow flag without having yet set a qualifying lap, they were assessed a pit lane drive-through penalty that they had to take on the next lap.

That was the only controversy of the Fast Six as Palou ended the six-minute session on top.

The 100-lap race will be live at 15:00 local time/05:00 AEST. 

Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Fast Six