Alex Palou doesn’t have many “firsts” left to chase in the IndyCar Series, but he captured one Sunday.
The star driver from Spain won the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach for the first time, beating polesitter Felix Rosenqvist to the checkers by 3.9663 seconds on Sunday in Long Beach, Calif.
It marked the 22nd victory of Palou’s career and his third this season through five races. The four-time IndyCar Series champion finished second at Long Beach last year and third in 2024.
“It’s huge, it’s huge. Super proud of everybody’s job, but especially these guys, this crew, they gave me the win today,” Palou said in his post-race interview. “… Incredible, incredible to finally win here at Long Beach.”
The key for Palou was passing Rosenqvist off pit road during the race’s final pit stops. The Swede led a race-high 51 laps, but Palou, who started third, took over late and led 32.
“It was that yellow, it was that pit stop with all the pressure that these boys were able to do it and execute it perfectly,” Palou said of his pit crew.
Rosenqvist was left with mixed emotions after he underperformed in his first four races, finishing between 12th and 19th each time.
“End of the day, it’s great,” Rosenqvist said. “Tough start on the year. Came back here, tried to bounce back. Got a podium, P2.
“A little bit of a bittersweet race. I’m not sure exactly what happened, we lost a little bit in the stop. Alex is obviously gonna be 10 out of 10 almost every stop, so I don’t think it was necessarily that our one was slow, but they probably had a great one as well.”
Veteran driver Scott Dixon of New Zealand came in third for his first podium of the year.
Palou grew his points lead to 17 points over Kyle Kirkwood, who finished Sunday’s race in fourth.
–Field Level Media
