INDIANAPOLIS — Alex Palou sent an early message by aggressively passing Christian Lundgaard, who had started in pole position, on the first lap of Saturday's GMR Grand Prix: Palou was driving to win, and he wasn't leaving anything to chance.
He delivered on his promise, too. After inheriting the lead on the 65th lap on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he pulled away from the 27-car field and beat Pato O'Ward across the yard of bricks by 16.8006 seconds.
"We missed a little bit in qualifying, but we knew we had a fast car," Palou said after producing IndyCar's widest victory margin since his 30-second season-ending win in 2022. "I knew when we started on the alternates (red tires), we had to go hard. It was right, it was perfect."
Palou's team got everything right in his Honda engine-driven Chip Ganassi Racing No. 10, including the crucial tire strategy — opting to start on reds before switching to new primaries, then scuffed primaries and, finally, sticker primaries on his final pit stop.
As a result, the 2021 IndyCar Series champion dominated the race, leading 52 of 85 laps for his first win of the season and his first in 11 combined starts on the road course and oval at IMS. It's the fifth career win for the 26-year-old Spaniard, who is also the American open-wheel series' only driver to complete every lap of this season's first five races.
His rout of a ride on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile course put Ganassi back in victory lane for the first time since Marcus Ericsson's season-opening victory in March on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.
Palou also leapfrogged his teammate, Ericsson, in the season standings. Palou has a six-point lead on O'Ward, while Ericsson fell from first to third, 19 points behind.
AP photo by Michael Conroy / Christian Lundgaard, left, leads Alex Palou into the first turn of the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after the start of Saturday's GMR Grand Prix. Palou passed Lundgaard, who began in pole position, later on the first lap and went on to win the race.O'Ward has been the runner-up three times this season but believes Arrow McLaren is poised to make a big move after putting all three of the team's cars in the top five Saturday. Alexander Rossi, the 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner, was third while Felix Rosenqvist was fifth.
"We've been knocking on the door every single week," O'Ward said. "I'm just really enjoying it. We're growing massively as a team."
IndyCar's first Danish pole-winner, Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, was fourth. Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport, who won last year's GMR Grand Prix despite starting 14th, wound up ninth after moving from 14th on the starting grid into the top five during Saturday's race.
Palou was surprised by others who opted not to start on primary tires.
"For us, it was clear. We were struggling a little bit more than some of the guys on used reds in the warmup," he said. "We knew we didn't want to use used reds, that's why we started on new alternates, try to get the lead, try to get a big gap, like two, three, four, seconds, then work on our pace on the black (tires)."
That decision perfectly positioned Palou for his final 20-lap run after Rossi pitted on a warm, mostly sunny day. O'Ward changed to reds on his final pit stop to try something different after Palou and Lundgaard both went with the black tires.
It allowed Palou to keep padding his lead as the laps wound down and his tires started wearing down while the cars behind him vied for track position.
"We've been close here, we've had a little bit of bad luck," Palou said. "Super proud. It's a special place. You can feel that in the car just with the fans that we had already since practice one. There's something about this place, obviously. Even if it's not the big one, it's still special."
The big one is next on the race calendar.
Practice for the Indianapolis 500 begins Tuesday on the track's historic 2.5-mile oval. Pole qualifying will be held next Saturday, with bump day set for May 21. IndyCar's biggest race of the season will be run May 28 on Memorial Day weekend.