Palou takes The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix victory away from the McLarens

This is the first time in the last five years that we have had back-to-back victories in the first two races of the year. Alex Palou wins The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix, keeping his lead in the 2025 NTT IndyCAR championship standings.

The race started with a spinner on the formation lap, with Scott Mclaughlin getting tapped around before the green flag waved. Not linking to this first incident, Mclaughlin was the first and only driver to retire from the race.

Although there wasn’t a single yellow flag to give the drivers a breather in the Californian sun, Callum Illot took flight in his Prema, hitting the back of his teammate and breaking his front wing. Luckily, Robert Shwartzman had minor damage, and Ilott had to change his wing, finishing 26th out of the 26 finishers.

While the first lap drama unfolded like an episode of East Enders, Pato O’Ward, in his McLaren, was building a gap between himself and teammate Christian Lundgaard. This helped him get a couple of extra points for leading the most laps, 51 in total.

O’ward looked as if he would win the race without a concern in the world, but that was not the case. Palou pitted for a sticker set of red-walled soft Firestone tyres for the last 15 laps, granting Palou almost three seconds of pace per lap over the McLarens on the slower black-walled hard tyres. Lungaard did his best to keep the Spaniard behind after three switch backs in one lap.

After passing Lungaard, Palou closed a 10-second gap in just four laps and passed O’Ward incredibly easily with a simple late-breaking move down the inside with six laps to go. To flex his pace, he pulled a 10-second gap once he passed O’Ward.

Mid-way through the race the IndyCAR world went dark. The live stream for the world crashed for about 30 minutes. Leaving fans to rely on snippets seen on social media. But the fans at the track couldn’t keep the world updated, as the screens around the track froze simultaneously. Meaning no one knew what was going on. Luckily, the race was unaffected, and nothing dramatic happened during the broadcast blackout.

Three weeks until IndyCAR returns for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, California. Will it be three for three for Alex Palou, or can someone else challenge the podium’s top step? With 15 more races to go, it’s still anyone’s game.