Front-Row Start for Palou, Honda at the GMR Grand Prix

  • Championship points leader Alex Palou will start second in Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
  • Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing places all three entries in the top 12

Defending NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou led the way for Honda today in qualifying for Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and will start on the front row, second in his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Other Honda drivers to advance out of first round “knockout” qualifying today on the 2.439-mile Indy road course include Rahal Letterman Lanigan teammates Christian Lundegaard and Jack Harvey, who will start eighth and ninth, respectively; and Romain Grosjean, who qualified his Andretti Autosport Honda in 10th.  Graham Rahal also advanced to the second qualifying round, and will start his RLL Honda from 12th in Saturday’s 85-lap race.

GMR Grand Prix Indianapolis Qualifying Results

  •   2nd Alex Palou                         Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  •   8th Christian Lundegaard-R      Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda   
  •   9th Jack Harvey                       Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda   
  • 10th Romain Grosjean                Andretti Autosport Honda
  • 12th Graham Rahal                    Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
  • 13th Takuma Sato                      Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda
  • 14th Colton Herta                       Andretti Autosport Honda
  • 16th Alexander Rossi                 Andretti Autosport Honda
  • 17th Devlin DeFrancesco-R        Andretti Autosport Honda
  • 18th Marcus Ericsson                 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 19th Helio Castroneves              Meyer Shank Racing Honda
  • 20th Simon Pageaud                  Meyer Shank Racing Honda
  • 21st Scott Dixon                         Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 22nd David Malukas-R                Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda
  • 27th Jimmie Johnson                 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

R – Rookie

Quotes
Alex Palou
(#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) will start second: “Yeah, it was a good day for us.  The #10 Honda was really fast all day, in both practice sessions.  We tried to improve the car a bit more for qualifying and we did.  We found some stuff that I was happy about, and we got through to the Fast Six [final qualifying round] and that’s always our main target – to start up front.  So, making the Fast Six and starting on the front row, that’s a good day for us.”

Fast Facts

  • The “Month of May” begins this weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the GMR Grand Prix.  Held on the IMS infield road course, Saturday’s 85-lap race will kick off three weeks of on-track activities leading up to the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29.
  • On the strength of three podium finishes in four races this season, defending NTT INDYCAR SERIES Champion Alex Palou comes to the GMR Grand Prix with a three-point lead in the 2022 title chase.
  • Honda’s most recent win at the GMR Grand Prix came in 2020.  Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal scored a 1-2 finish for Honda, with Colton Herta finishing fourth. Honda drivers went on to win the Indianapolis 500 in both 2020 (Takuma Sato, his second ‘500’ victory) and 2021 (Helio Castroneves, for his record-tying fourth win at the Brickyard).

Where to Watch
Television coverage of Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix starts at 3 p.m. EDT on NBC.  Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on NBC Peacock, the INDYCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation (Channel 160).

Honda Racing social media content and video links from this weekend’s activities from Indianapolis can be found on Instagram (www.instagram.com/hondaracing_hpd), Twitter (twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD).  Additional features and long-form videos can be found on the Honda Racing/HPD YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV).