IndyCar St. Louis: Schumacher best rookie in qualifying – Palou on pole

– The IndyCar qualifying at World Wide Technology Raceway, the short oval near St. Louis, concluded on Saturday with another stellar performance from Alex Palou (Ganassi-Honda). The Spaniard, a four-time and reigning IndyCar champion and also the current championship leader in 2026, secured another pole.

Read more Damage to the car: Why Nico Hülkenberg already failed in Q2

In the current season, this is Palou’s fourth consecutive pole, and on four different track types: Indianapolis Road Course as a permanent road course, Indianapolis Oval as a large oval (superspeedway), Detroit as a street circuit, and now St. Louis as a small oval (short oval).

When the race in St. Louis starts with its extremely late start time – converted to Central European time, in the night from Sunday to Monday at 3:25 AM CEST – Palou will lead the field. Mick Schumacher (Rahal-Honda) will tackle the 260-lap race from 18th on the grid, and thus from row 9 (IndyCar St. Louis: Schedule, TV, all info).

Qualifying, as is customary on short ovals, was held as an individual time trial over two flying laps. The average of both laps determines the starting grid. Mick Schumacher, who had to go out first based on the reverse order of the current points standings, drove both his laps to the thousandth of a second at the same speed! Minimal differences only appeared at the fourth decimal place.

In short: Twice 26.425 seconds clearly meant an average of 26.425 seconds (170.290 miles per hour) for Schumacher. “Unfortunately, I had a bit of understeer. If it hadn’t been for that, I would have been happier. The track conditions or the wind, whatever it was, made the track a bit slippery,” said Schumacher, comparing it to the previous free practice in a TV interview with Fox.

Of the 24 drivers who followed him in qualifying, 17 were faster and seven were slower than Schumacher. His teammates, Graham Rahal and Louis Foster, were both faster. They secured grid positions 11 and 17 respectively. Among the three rookies in the field, Schumacher was the fastest in P18. Caio Collet (Foyt-Chevrolet) qualified in 20th, Dennis Hauger (Coyne-Honda) in 24th.

Read more Surprise for Verstappen: First row in Monaco

Alex Palou goes last – and on pole

Pole was achieved by Alex Palou with a two-lap average of 25.809 seconds (174.353 miles per hour). Palou was the last of the 25 drivers to go out for his two flying laps because he is the current championship leader. And once again, he showed why. With 25.719 seconds, Palou also set the absolute fastest single-lap time.

Second fastest in the individual time trial behind Palou was David Malukas (Penske-Chevrolet). The youngster from Chicago, who so narrowly missed victory at the Indy 500, will start Sunday’s race from the front row alongside polesitter Palou.

Last year’s winner Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti-Honda) and Indy 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist (Shank-Honda) will start from the second row, followed by Scott McLaughlin (Penske-Chevrolet) and Marcus Armstrong (Shank-Honda) in the third row.

Rinus VeeKay (Juncos-Chevrolet), who had a crash in the preceding free practice, managed to qualify in 13th place. Far back on the grid is, among others, the five-time polesitter in St. Louis, Will Power. In his first qualifying on this oval, which he contested not as a Penske but as an Andretti driver, Power only managed 21st on the grid.

The first and, until Sunday evening, only race on a short oval so far this season was won by Josef Newgarden in early March at the one-mile oval in Phoenix. On the irregularly shaped 1.25-mile oval in St. Louis, Newgarden is the record winner with five victories (IndyCar St. Louis: Schedule, TV, all info).

Read more «Reality-Check» for McLaren: No chance of victory in Monaco?