Palou denies McLaren historic F1/IndyCar double

McLaren had qualified 1-2 for the Thermal IndyCar race but Alex Palou - the driver McLaren is still suing after he elected not to join it in 2024 - stormed to victory with a late pass on polesitter Pato O’Ward to take his second win in the first two races of the season.

After it won the Chinese Grand Prix in Formula 1 on Sunday morning, McLaren had the chance to win an IndyCar race on the same day for what it thought would the first time since 1976. But ending that run will have to wait a little while longer.

The race was characterised by the total unknown of which of the soft or hard tyre would be the best over a stint, meaning it was probably halfway through the race before we got a genuine idea of the favourite to win at a track which had only held a short, non-points race last year and not a full IndyCar race.

O’Ward was sensational in the first stint on fresh soft tyres, extending a gap of seven seconds to Palou his erstwhile second-place team-mate Christian Lundgaard dived in to pit and try to undercut O’Ward.

It did help cut the gap and establish Lundgaard as O’Ward’s closest challenger, as Palou elected to run long in the second stint and lost time through O’Ward and Lundgaard undercutting him.

However, Palou reeled in Lundgaard - which allowed O’Ward’s lead to extend a gap over 10 seconds - with around 20 laps to go, and Lundgaard was forced into his final stop relatively early on lap 47 of 65 before Palou could get past.

Palou came in two laps later and had the joker card of having a fresh set of soft tyres left over, and pitting before O’Ward gave him a chance to cut the gap.

But instead Palou emerged behind Lundgaard again, and as O’Ward nailed his outlap, Palou and Lundgaard overtook each other twice on the same lap before Palou established the position with 15 laps to go.