IndyCar Indianapolis GP: Mick Schumacher out in Q1 – Palou on pole

– With a one-day delay, the qualifying for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis of the 2026 IndyCar season took place on the Indianapolis road course. After the weather-related postponement, the time trial to determine the starting grid was now held late Saturday morning under the best conditions.

Mick Schumacher (Rahal-Honda) secured 18th place on the grid after his strong performance in the second free practice and the postponed qualifying. In the two-part first segment (Q1), the rookie driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) once again failed to make it into the top 12, this time by 0.122 seconds.

“Suboptimal,” was Schumacher’s assessment in a TV interview with Fox. “I didn’t make it through, but it’s really incredibly close here.” Nevertheless, the IndyCar rookie from Germany does not give up hope for a good race on the track that was already familiar to him before this weekend.

Fact is: Mick Schumacher has now failed to advance directly from the Q1 segment in five of the six IndyCar qualifying sessions in his career. His by far best qualifying was at the beginning of March on the one-mile oval in Phoenix, where there are no qualifying segments. There, he sensationally qualified fourth with his two flying laps in a row.

Photo gallery: Mick Schumacher’s results in the 2026 IndyCar season

The two-day weekend on the Indianapolis road course started for Schumacher on Friday with P22 in the first free practice, after which he improved to P7 in the second free practice. Because qualifying was postponed from Friday to Saturday, it took place directly on race day. As a result, the usual warm-up on road courses was exceptionally canceled.

Schumacher’s teammates in positions 6 and 7

In a TV interview before the postponed qualifying began, Schumacher noted that he “would have quite liked to drive in the rain,” although he has never driven an IndyCar on a wet track. However, the changed schedule meant that qualifying ultimately took place a day later under partly cloudy skies and sunshine.

Schumacher’s teammates Louis Foster and Graham Rahal made it into Q3 (Foster) and narrowly missed it (Rahal). Rahal, who secured seventh place on the grid, missed advancing in the Q2 segment by 0.121 seconds. This again highlights the Indianapolis road course as a suitable track for RLL this year. Why this is so and why it hardly translates to other tracks remains a mystery.

The biggest surprises in the first two qualifying segments were the early exits of Scott McLaughlin (Penske-Chevrolet; 17th) and Will Power (Andretti-Honda; 26th) in Q1 and then Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti-Honda; 9th) in Q2 (results at the Indianapolis Grand Prix weekend).

Dominant pole lap by Alex Palou

The fight for pole position for the Indianapolis Grand Prix was decided in the final qualifying segment by Alex Palou (Ganassi-Honda). The Spaniard was more than half a second (!) faster than Patricio “Pato” O’Ward (McLaren-Chevrolet) in the six-driver Q3.

P1 is far from unfamiliar to Palou. He has won the Indianapolis Grand Prix in each of the past three years, twice from pole position, has won four of the last five IndyCar titles, and is also the current points leader in 2026.

From the second row behind Palou and O’Ward, Felix Rosenqvist (Shank-Honda) and Christian Lundgaard (McLaren-Chevrolet) will start the race, followed by David Malukas (Penske-Chevrolet) and Louis Foster (Rahal-Honda) in the third row.

The start of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis over a race distance of 85 laps will take place in a few hours, converted to Central European Time at 22:57 CEST.