Palou leads Dixon in Thermal Club warmup

Chip Ganassi Racing led the way in the 25-minute warmup session ahead of this afternoon’s IndyCar Grand Prix at The Thermal Club, with Alex Palou and Scott Dixon setting the fastest times ahead of Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden. The latter’s pace was a welcome sign for his team after its torrid qualifying session on Saturday, in which all three Penske drivers failed to make it out of the opening round.

Palou, who starts third in today’s race behind the two Arrow McLaren entries of Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard, ran a fast lap of 1m40.3667s around the 3.6-mile road course, nearly matching his qualifying time and a comfortable 0.46s clear of teammate Dixon. After Newgarden (0.5695s off Palou) came Graham Rahal, also rebounding from a difficult qualifying session in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan car that earned him an 18th-place start, while Callum Ilott provided similar encouragement for PREMA Racing by rounding out the top five after qualifying 22nd. Pole-sitter O’Ward, conversely, was just 19th fastest in the warmup.

UP NEXT: The IndyCar GP at The Thermal Club starts at 3:00pm ET (FOX).

STARTING LINE-UP AND TIRE DESIGNATIONS: