Palou denies McLaren historic F1/IndyCar double

McLaren had qualified 1-2 for the Thermal IndyCar race but Alex Palou - the driver McLaren is still suing after he elected not to join it in 2024 - stormed to victory with a late pass on polesitter Pato O’Ward to take his second win in the first two races of the season.

After it won the Chinese Grand Prix in Formula 1 on Sunday morning, McLaren had the chance to win an IndyCar race on the same day for what it thought would the first time since 1976. But ending that run will have to wait a little while longer.

The race was characterised by the total unknown of which of the soft or hard tyre would be the best over a stint, meaning it was probably halfway through the race before we got a genuine idea of the favourite to win at a track which had only held a short, non-points race last year and not a full IndyCar race.

O’Ward was sensational in the first stint on fresh soft tyres, extending a gap of seven seconds to Palou his erstwhile second-place team-mate Christian Lundgaard dived in to pit and try to undercut O’Ward.

It did help cut the gap and establish Lundgaard as O’Ward’s closest challenger, as Palou elected to run long in the second stint and lost time through O’Ward and Lundgaard undercutting him.

However, Palou reeled in Lundgaard - which allowed O’Ward’s lead to extend a gap over 10 seconds - with around 20 laps to go, and Lundgaard was forced into his final stop relatively early on lap 47 of 65 before Palou could get past.

Palou came in two laps later and had the joker card of having a fresh set of soft tyres left over, and pitting before O’Ward gave him a chance to cut the gap.

But instead Palou emerged behind Lundgaard again, and as O’Ward nailed his outlap, Palou and Lundgaard overtook each other twice on the same lap before Palou established the position with 15 laps to go.

Palou then absolutely flew, erasing a near-11 second gap in just a handful of laps.

He took over three seconds off O’Ward in the first two laps after his pitstop and overtaking Lundgaard.

The gap then halved by almost 2.5 seconds in a single lap with 13 to go as O’Ward hit traffic, held up by Sting Ray Robb and Louis Foster for a lap while also grappling with an overheating hybrid.

Clearly with greater pace, O’Ward held on as best as he could but Palou dived down the inside of Turn 7 with 10 laps to go in a beautiful late-braking move to take the lead and head on up the road.

A dejected O’Ward had to settle for second, ahead of Lundgaard rounding out the podium.

Though he’s won three of the last four championships, Palou has never won the first two races to start the IndyCar season in ominous form for the championship’s now seemingly unassailable and clear best driver.

“It’s tough seeing this guy beat us every week,” admitted Lundgaard. “We've got to find a way to stop him.”

Even after being stuck in traffic of his own, Ganassi's Palou’s gap reached 10.1854 seconds. Second did at least allow O’Ward to take second in the championship, too, 39 points behind Palou.

An excellent undercut strategy allowed Kyle Kirkwood to jump his Andretti team-mate Colton Herta in the first round of stops and run fourth for most of the race, but Herta struck back late on and Felix Rosenqvist also got past to round out the top five.

Team Penske's Will Power started 21st but used every bit of rubber especially early on the soft tyres to drive through the field, making a string of passes inside the last 10 laps also to take sixth - 15 positions gained - ahead of Rosenqvist’s Meyer Shank team-mate Marcus Armstrong.

Kirkwood held on for eighth with an awful last stint on used softs, with St Pete standout Alexander Rossi of Ed Carpenter and Scott Dixon passed Graham Rahal for 10th on the last lap.

In 12th, Rossi's team-mate Christian Rasmussen made a reported 17 on-track overtakes in a rollercoaster race eventually moving up from 19th.

After qualifying 17th, 21st and 25th, Team Penske’s other drivers had a tough race. Josef Newgarden went off strategy from 17th and finished 13th. Scott McLaughlin didn't finish after what was reported to be an overheating hybrid, having clashed with Devlin DeFrancesco before the green flag which initiated a feisty post-race exchange.

Marcus Ericsson’s run of finishing every session this year in the top 10 ended after two off-track excursions led to a 21st-place finish.

There was embarrassment for new TV provider, Fox Sports, as the live pictures of the event vanished around the halfway point because of an electrical issue in the production truck.

Pictures were restored with a heli-cam after a handful of laps and the sound followed shortly after.

Palou and O'Ward apologised to fans and thanked them for sticking with the broadcast.

IndyCar rookie Robert Shwartzman starred early on. His car erupted into flames in the first practice and missed the second, meaning he had just 13 laps of running on the track prior to the race where he promptly went from 27th to 15th in the first stint.

An issue with his first pitstop undid that work - and was an issue in St Pete too - as he eventually finished 22nd.