San Francisco (United States) (AFP) – Alex Palou captured his eighth race of the IndyCar season on Sunday, dominating the Monterey Grand Prix to tighten his grip on a fourth season points crown in five campaigns. The 28-year-old Spaniard won from the pole position for the second consecutive year to claim his 19th career IndyCar title after 95 laps over the 11-turn, 2.238-mile permanent road course at Laguna Seca in northern California.
“What an amazing job by everybody to be as fast as we were,” Palou said. “We had enough pace to open a small gap and get the win.” Palou, the Indianapolis 500 winner, was in command from start to finish and with three races remaining could break the one-season win record of 10 set by A.J. Foyt in 1964 and matched by Al Unser Sr. in 1970.
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“It has been an awesome weekend, awesome year overall, but today was something else,” Palou said. “Super fun to be here. One of my favorite tracks. I’m happy right now.” Denmark’s Christian Lundgaard finished second followed by American Colton Herta, Mexico’s Pato O’Ward, and New Zealand’s Scott Dixon.
Palou stretched his lead in the 2025 championship chase to a massive 121 points over O’Ward, who is now the only rival who can overtake him for the title. Palou is on 590 points with O’Ward a distant second on 469. Palou grabbed the lead at the start and kept it until a lap-25 pit stop under caution after American Kyle Kirkwood bumped Dutchman Rinus VeeKay.
Palou returned to the track in second place but made an outside pass of American Nolan Siegel on lap 37 to reclaim the lead. The Spaniard stopped again on lap 52 and took over the lead once more only seconds after his return to the track. Palou made his final stop on lap 72 and returned to the course with a lead of more than eight seconds, then staying in front to the finish.
The next race, the 15th of 17 IndyCar season events, will be at Portland in two weeks.
© 2024 AFP
