Alex Palou achieved in the early hours of this Sunday a historic moment for Spanish motorsports. The 107th running of the Indianapolis 500where illustrious pilots such as Grosjean, Sato, Dixon or Andretti had all the spotlights.
However, the great protagonist was going to be Palou, the pilot McLaren tester in F1and who has already been proclaimed Indycar champion in 2021.
If Alex Palou has already stumped everyone in the past Indianapolis GP taking the victoryin the 500 mile qualifying he was going to achieve a greater feat and twice.
A dream mark: the fastest: 234.217 miles per hour,
The Catalan pilot He took pole and broke Scott Dixon’s circuit record in 2022. The mark was at 234.0and seemed impossible to beat.
However, a Spanish genius rubbed the lamp and took a batch of 4 historic laps : 235.131, 234.399, 233.930 and 233.415.
The average: 234,217 miles per hour, that is to say he flew in the 15 kilometers rolling at an average of 377 km/h.
Was the second fastest pole in Indy 500 history.
The joy of Alex Palou: “It means everything to me”
In this way, pole position has a Spanish flavor and next Sunday, Alex Palou will start ahead of VeeKay, Rosenqvist, Ferrucci, O’Ward and Dixon.
“It’s been harder than doing those four full laps,” he joked into the microphones.
“I’m very proud of all the work that the team has done all this month, all this year, to get here”, emphasized Palou.
The Spaniard’s number 10 car was the fastest, but his team is also responsible for the achievement: “This means everything to mefor the boys, for everyone… They have given me the fastest car”, he assumed.
Maximum equality: the closest classification in history
Has been the fastest pole in the history of the 500 Miles, but the difference has been very close. So only four thousandths have separated him from the second classified, Rinus VeeKay.
“We knew we had to be aggressive and lighten the car to get a good first lap and then try to be consistent“, he explained.
“On the fourth lap it was very difficult to keep it, but we did it. I knew I only had one chance,” he added..
On Sunday 28 at 6:30 p.m., the race
Next Sunday will be the big event, but for now the Spaniard has managed a check worth $100,000 which credits him as the poleman.
“We’ll try…we’ll keep working. There’s a long way to go in the race and it’s going to be a tough race. Now we will enjoy the pole positionwe will celebrate it with the boys and we will prepare for next week“, he explained.
The Catalan’s joy was evident, since in the 3 and a half seasons in the Indycar he had never achieved the best time. Although it must be added that won in 5 races.
The race will be next Sunday May 28 from 6:45 p.m. and it can be seen through ‘Movistar’.
