Palou won another recital at Laguna Seca and was marking territory in the fight for Indycar

Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi) he repeated success from 2022 to Laguna Seca with a display on the wheel that allows him to reposition himself as leader of the championshipwhich is also favored by the problems of its main rivals for the title.

Laguna Seca is the third win of the season for the reigning Indycar champion, who leads the championship with 285 points, 27 more than the Australian Will Power (Penske) and 34 more than his teammate, the New Zealander Scott Dixon.

The Americans Colton Herta (Andretti) and Alexander Rossi (Arrow McLaren) completed the podium at the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterrey (California).

“It was a chaotic race. We did a tremendous job“, with a slightly risky approach but it was an amazing victory for the number 10 car. I doubted a little but everything went well, it was an incredible day for the Chip Ganassi team,” Palou said as he got out of his car.

There are no exit reflections. The first position of Palou Some of his rivals wanted him from pole position, with the biggest threat posed by Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti) who took the lead after the first corner, catching the Spaniard on the outside.

Various battles were fought and the main loser was Australian Will Power in his duel with Santino Ferrucci (AJ Foyt), who crashed in several places and was forced to come back from the start.

Both Palou and Kirkwood set a very high race pace, which only Swede Felix Rosenqvist (Meyer Shank) could match, becoming a real threat at the front. The passage to the pits was key and the chosen one to enter first was the American, leaving the Catalan in the lead for several laps.

But the great winner in the first break was Rossi, which reads more about how to do the ‘undercut’ and puts itself first. About halfway through the test, pit stops and yellow flags due to accidents by rookies Dale Coyne, Nolan Siegel and Luca Ghiotto put the main candidates to the test.

Strategy changes everything

Production cameras will go Barry Wanser, Palou’s head of strategywho decided to extend the next mechanics visit as long as possible, taking advantage of the ‘push to pass’ to get a few seconds ahead of his rivals.

It was good for them, because He rejoined the race third after Herta and Rossi with 38 laps to the finish line. After five he was second, and after two he was again the leader. The skill of the Catalan driver was impressive, overtaking in the middle of the ‘corkscrew’ and confirming that the strategy was very successful.

Joseph Newgarden (Penske) was positioned very well in the last twenty laps to qualify for victory, he stopped in the pits before the yellow flag was activated and finished second behind Palou. But it didn’t last long: a mistake made him lose positions in fifth, a mirage that confirmed his weakness on circuits compared to ovals.

The race resumed after several yellows in the last ten laps, where Palou, with less seconds of ‘push to pass’ than Herta, avoided the American attacks.