IndyCar championship leader Alex Palou will start second for Ganassi in Sunday’s race at the Honda Indy Toronto, marking his career-best qualifying effort at the Canadian street circuit and his sixth front-row start of the 2025 season. Despite a dominant showing from pole-sitter Colton Herta throughout the weekend and the other Andretti machine of Kyle Kirkwood, Palou remained upbeat about his chances and the performance of his No. 10 machine.
“Super. Super happy. It was a very good day for us. As you said, it’s the first time I think we’re in the top 10 here. Starting tomorrow, hopefully it’s going to be a little bit easier, a little bit less chaotic, especially the first stint.”
Chasing the dominant Andretti duo
Palou acknowledged the gap to the Andretti cars, but also emphasized the progress made since practice.
“Yeah, I mean, Colton [Herta] and Kyle [Kirkwood], they’ve been like on another league this weekend. To be second and to be a bit closer than what we started this morning or in P1 or anything, it’s really good.”
Quali set-up dialed in – but race pace to be determined
Asked about the state of his race car, he kept it honest:
“I’ll let you know tomorrow” he said smiling. “We don’t really know honestly. We’ve been making the qualifying car trying to be a bit better, just doing short stints. Honestly, I have no idea how our race car is going to be. I would say normally when you go to race, everything compacts a little bit more, you don’t see big differences. Hopefully that’s true.”
Palou emphasized that warm-up will be “huge” in dialing in race set-up.
Turn 3 patch fails to impress
One of the major talking points this weekend was the patch placed before Turn 3 – an effort by INDYCAR to smooth out a brutal bump on the fastest part of the track.
“Yeah, it didn’t really make any difference for us. I guess they tried hard. The good thing is we brake past that, so it’s just uncomfortable when you drive through there. But it was not any smoother. You were still hitting very, very hard.”
Palou elaborated:
“It was the same in a different way. It was as big, yeah. I mean, honestly, it’s tough because we’re going, like, really fast there, probably 180, 190 miles an hour. Even a small bump, you feel it a lot. The car is as low as you’re ever going to be, then suddenly there’s that small bump, which today was just like in a different direction. Yesterday was a dip, today it’s like you’re going over.
“It’s okay. I mean, they’re trying. We understand it’s a street. There’s nothing you can do. I honestly prefer this than to pave street courses for us. I don’t think we need that.
“I think you can see with how bumpy these streets are the amazing racing that we can get from it. I think it’s good. They tried. Didn’t work. It’s fine.”
Finally finding comfort in Toronto
Looking at the broader picture, Palou explained that his improved comfort level at this circuit comes from changes in setup and approach.
“No, I think we improved quite a bit from the past, what we had here in the past. We still need a little bit more speed, compared to Colton. When you see the lap times they were able to do every single session, it’s pretty impressive.
“But yeah, I’m a lot more comfortable. As everybody, we’re on the limit. Whenever you’re on the bumps, it’s never comfortable. It’s the best car I had here so far, also the highest confidence I had.”
P2: “We can race from there”
While the challenge of chasing down Herta looms large, Palou isn’t too concerned about starting second:
“Yeah, it’s never easy. I think it’s never easy to start second either. If the person in third is, usually able to pass the person on the outside.
“Yeah, I guess we’ll see. We’ll see what we can do. I think it’s not easy to be around the outside in turn one. Honestly, it’s still great. As long as we’re in the top four or five by lap one, it’s where we want to be. Like, we can race from there.”
Overnight rain: “It’s going to be better for the race”
Rain overnight may improve grip by washing dust off the racing line, potentially making it easier for drivers to go side-by-side and attempt passes.
“Yeah, it’s going to make it a little bit worse for tyre deg. It’s going to have more tyre deg. At the same time it’s kind of going to clean a little bit the track. There’s a lot of dust. As soon as you go a little bit offline, it’s very tricky just because there’s dust from constructing the track, the construction around, especially on the back straight heading into turn three.
“I think actually it’s going to be okay, it’s going to be good, better for the race, at least the start of the race. We can use that outside line a little bit more when we’re fighting without crashing. I think it’s going to be okay. If we have more tyre deg, it’s going to be the same for everybody.”
“A tyre race more than a fuel race”
On tyre strategy, Palou was clear: he expects a race where short bursts of speed on alternate tyres may come at the cost of long-term consistency – and that balance could decide the podium.
“Yeah, I mean, the alternates are a bit faster. Well, we will see, but I think it’s going to be tough to make them last for a full stint. They are faster and you feel like a super hero for those five to maybe 10 laps. They kind of like give up. I think for tomorrow, obviously it’s going to be tough.
“I think on primaries, they last for a full stint. It’s about 30, 35 laps. The only issue is that the last 10 or the last eight, they are not easy.
“I think it’s going to be interesting tomorrow on strategy, if somebody can make it on one stop less or they can make the tyres last a bit longer than anyone else.
“I think it’s going to be more of a tyre race than a fuel race. Obviously fuel always comes into play. I think the biggest difference will be the tyres.”
Hard work for Toronto
Reflecting on the overnight changes and engineering work, Palou noted how critical setup has been to his qualifying success.
“Yeah, actually it’s a lot more different than yesterday. Like from yesterday to practice to this morning we changed a lot more stuff, just trying to find a bit more confidence in the car, a little bit more grip.
“It’s not super hard to get a fast car for one lap. But I think to be comfortable and to be able to be consistent, especially like from turn eight to turn 11, over those bumps, it’s important.
“Yeah, we made huge changes. I think they were a lot better. After practice, we made some changes, as well, yeah. I mean, that’s why we have engineers, just so they can try to make the car better.”
Toronto remains one of the few tracks where Palou has not yet claimed a win:
“Yeah, I mean, it would be very sweet. Never won here, as you said. We’ve been close. I think in ’24 or ’23 we finished second, it’s the closest we’ve been.
“If we can pull another win this season, with the amazing season we had so far, would be very, very sweet.”
Expanding INDYCAR?
Finally, he praised the fan turnout and street racing appeal as INDYCAR continues to explore new markets. For Palou, the fan turnout at the Toronto event testifies to the excitement INDYCAR is capable of generating.
“Yeah, you just had to look at the fans yesterday on autograph session or during practice or even today on the stands.
“Yeah, I think it’s really cool. I think it’s super cool that we’re going to different cities. I think the street courses is something that, like, a lot of people, like new people to racing, love just because it’s super close, convenient. It’s easy access.
“Yeah, I’m loving it. I love it. I think we’re going to see more of this in the future. Hopefully, yeah, it’s good racing.”
