2025 IndyCar Grand Prix of Monterey at Laguna Seca – qualifying results

Alex Palou took pole within the dry lake mattress of Laguna Seca after he set a lap time of 1:08.341 which was three-tenths quicker than his championship competitor, Pato O’Ward.

Setting the scene for a showdown within the race tomorrow, O’Ward did his finest to proceed his scorching streak and to seek out his second pole of the yr however will now look to tomorrow to proceed to carry the combat to the Spaniard who he sits below 100 factors to within the championship.

After his pole, Palou mentioned: “The automotive has been superb. Yesterday, follow one, I felt like we had a ton of tempo. All yr truthfully, everyone at Chip Ganassi Racing has been doing an amazing job making me look good on monitor.

“It feels nice to be on pole right here and can’t anticipate tomorrow. I’ll do my finest. It is robust, I imply to have the ability to put all the pieces collectively in a race in IndyCar, you guys have seen, it is fairly robust, however we’ll do all the pieces that we are able to to attempt to be up high tomorrow.

Though O’Ward would have inevitably appreciated pole, he recognised that that is his best-ever qualifying place at Laguna Seca and gave credit score to Palou who set a “monster lap”.

“My finest beginning place right here, we’ll take that. Alex threw down a monster lap there and, yeah, simply joyful that we had a clean qualifying.” O’ward digressed, “It has been a little bit of a stranger to be within the Quick Six this yr so it is good to be again in right here.

“He is the man we have now to beat and he is beginning in entrance of us so we’ll see what tomorrow has in retailer.”

Colton Herta will begin third whereas Josef Newgarden confirmed that when all the pieces goes proper, he can nonetheless combat with the perfect. The a number of phrase champion will begin fourth which is his finest qualifying place this yr outdoors of an oval.

Newgarden was joined by his teammate, Will Energy, within the Quick Six who will begin fifth whereas David Malukas completed on the backside of the ultimate qualifying session.

A cancelled Follow Two resulting from early morning fog meant that drivers entered qualifying blind after just one hour to work out arrange on Friday in Follow One.

Uncertain of what tyre to make use of in qualifying, Group One noticed an array of automobiles utilizing totally different compounds. Penske drivers Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin used the softer crimson tyre in Group One and have been joined by Marcus Ericsson on the choice.

Nevertheless, others on the onerous tyre proved that the compound’s longer life meant it might survive the lap higher with Ericsson and McLaughlin eradicated whereas Newgarden survived by the pores and skin of his tooth and solely 0.020s quicker than his teammate.

McLaughlin mentioned: “It is the identical for everybody however the Xfinity Chevy yesterday, we rolled off a little bit bit out of the window.

“[We] threw lots of adjustments at it this morning however a genius determined to say 8:30 for follow so nobody’s gonna run sadly but it surely’s the identical for everybody.

“We simply missed out, It is irritating, however I am glad that we made some enhancements there and we’ll all be higher right here tomorrow.”

Mclaughlin will begin thirteenth whereas Ericsson will begin fifteenth.

Regardless of two out of the three mushy tyre runners eradicated in Group One, this didn’t appear to scare groups in Group Two with seven of the drivers utilizing the crimson tyres.

Nevertheless, by the point the ultimate runs got here everybody made the swap to the softer compound. Pato O’Ward discovered himself in peril within the remaining minute within the drop zone, nonetheless, he put himself to the highest of the timesheet along with his remaining lap.

Kyle Kirkwood was additionally at risk sat in thirteenth because the clock hit zero however couldn’t set a time quick sufficient to flee being eradicated and completed ninth general.

“The final lap, it wasn’t nice”, Kirkwood defined, “We have been aiming for lap two and I used to be simply caught in site visitors there.

“Everyone’s type of backing up, [I’m] unsure what everyone else was doing. I am certain that they are most likely simply going to lap three however, for us, we would have liked to do a lap two and by no means actually received a really feel for the automotive after which got here to the final nook and had a reasonably substantial snap after which fought within the automotive to maintain it on monitor.

[The] automotive’s quick, we positively ought to switch there. Only a few unlucky circumstances type of held us out from there however we’ll have extra tires than everyone else now.

“I suppose that is the optimistic we are able to take from it and go from there. The technique begins for tomorrow.”

Kirkwood was joined by Santino Ferrucci within the elimination zone and Nolan Siegel whereas Graham Rahal managed to sneak his approach into the Quick 12.

The Andretti driver will begin 18th whereas Ferrucci will begin twentieth.

The Quick 12 noticed the same story to Group Two with a mix of drivers on the 2 totally different tyre compounds. It was Colton Herta who modified the narrative of the session by setting the quickest lap on used crimson tyres.

This made different drivers make the change to the softer compound irrespective of if it was used which made an extremely shut session for all of the drivers.

Pato O’Ward was practically eradicated and sat in eleventh with 30 seconds to go. Beginning his remaining lap with moments to go, Felix Rosenqvist and Alex Palou nearly denied him an opportunity to do his remaining lap with each having moments off monitor within the closing levels.

Rosenqvist spun his Grateful Useless livery automotive and managed to maintain it going by the gravel whereas Palou drifted his automotive into the mud however stored his foot in to carry it again onto monitor.

With neither incident bringing out something greater than a neighborhood yellow, O’Ward put his time in and managed to get himself into the Quick Six.

Rosenqvist was eradicated nonetheless and blamed the spin on the rationale he didn’t fairly make it into the ultimate group. He’ll begin twelfth.

He mentioned: “I simply spun at Flip 5, [I] went in a little bit onerous and I could not put it aside.

“It’s what it’s, my tempo is there, although. We’re quick, P2 within the first group, and we have been sitting P2 there so it is annoying when you will have the lap time after which it goes away.

‘[It] looks like at any time when there’s penalties to be handed out, we’re there to take them. You may run somebody off the monitor and that is effective. It was my unhealthy so I will should go ahead tomorrow.”

Within the Quick Six, drivers appeared to not need to reveal their playing cards early within the session with no aggressive lap occasions set till the ultimate minutes.

Each Newgarden and Palou first appeared on the onerous tyre earlier than switching after a few laps onto the softer compound.

In the meantime Herta waited for many of the session within the pits feeling no must set a banker lap.

Nevertheless, it was O’Ward who pulled the set off first within the Mexican standoff and initially went first earlier than Palou hit bullseye and set a lap time three tenths quicker than the Mexican driver