Alex Palou was the fastest competitor on the first day of the PPG Armed Forces Qualifying Session for the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 17.

The reigning three-time NTT INDYCAR Series champion from Barcelona, Spain, was the 23rd competitor in line to post a four-lap average-qualifying speed and bid for a starting spot for this year’s Greatest Spectacle in Racing at Indianapolis.

During his lone four-lap session of Saturday’s session, Palou, driving the No. 10 DHL/Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda entry, posted an average qualifying speed of 233.043 mph, which was enough to retain the top-starting spot for the remainder of the session.

As a result, Palou, who will be making his sixth consecutive bid to win his first Indy 500 victory this year, will be one of 12 competitors who will continue the quest for pole position for this year’s Indy 500 on Sunday, May 18. In addition, Palou, the 2021 Indy 500 pole winner, will attempt to become the first competitor to repeat as a Indy 500 pole winner since his teammate Scott Dixon achieved the latest feat between the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

“Amazing day for us,” Palou said in the DEX Imaging Media Center. “[I] Struggled a little bit in practice. We were not able to finish a full qualifying run. It was tough conditions today. Glad that we got our balance right. We had a ton of speed in the car. It’s been great to the comeback we did from last year. Really fast cars and looking forward to tomorrow.”

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, the reigning Indy 500 pole winner, and Josef Newgarden, the reigning two-time Indy 500 champion, posted the second- and third-fastest four-lap average-qualifying speeds of 233.013 mph and 233.004 mph, respectively, as both trailed Palou in Saturday’s first qualifying session.

The trio of Palou, McLaughlin and Newgarden along with Pato O’Ward, Scott Dixon, rookie Robert Shwartzman, David Malukas, Felix Rosenqvist, Takuma Sato, Will Power, Marcus Ericsson and Christian Lundgaard will return and contend for the 2025 Indy 500 pole position by transferring through Saturday’s Top-12 mark.

Conor Daly, who had his first qualifying run disallowed due to a front wing violation discovered during the post-qualifying technical inspection and rallied to be the final competitor to qualify to improve on his previous laps, just missed the top-12 mark despite posting a fast four-lap average run of 231.725 mph in his No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Dallara-Chevrolet entry.

Starting 14th through 29th for the 2025 Indy 500 are Alexander Rossi, Kyffin Simpson, Ed Carpenter, Santino Ferrucci, Devlin DeFrancesco, Sting Ray Robb, Christian Rasmussen, Kyle Larson, Louis Foster, Callum Ilott, Helio Castroneves, Kyle Kirkwood, Nolan Siegel, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Jack Harvey and Colton Herta, respectively.

Notably, Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, managed to improve from qualifying towards the top-30 cutline to qualify in 21st place, overall, in his second qualifying bid with his best average-lap session occurring at 231.326 mph. As a result, Larson, who is driving the No. 17 Arrow McLaren Dallara-Chevrolet entry, will officially commence his second bid to complete the Memorial Day double attempt and compete in both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600, the latter of which occurs at Charlotte Motor Speedway, on the same day next Sunday, May 25.

Colton Herta was involved in a harrowing rollover accident during his qualifying bid but he returned to the track in the closing minutes. He posted a four-lap qualifying average run of 230.192 mph, which was enough to claim the 29th-starting spot for this year’s Indy 500.

The competitor who claimed the 30th and final transfer spot to the 2025 Indy 500 from Saturday’s qualifying session was Graham Rahal, the latter of whom managed by posting his best four-lap average-qualifying run at 229.863 mph. This year marks Rahal’s first automatic transfer to the Indy 500 following the first day of the Indy 500 qualifying trials in three years after he had to go through the Last Chance Qualifying round over the previous two seasons.

Meanwhile, Rinus VeeKay, Marcus Armstrong, rookie Jacob Abel and Marco Andretti are the four competitors who will compete for the final three starting spots for this year’s Indy 500 through the Last Chance Qualifying round that will occur on Sunday, May 18.

Notably, Armstrong managed to post two four-lap average-qualifying attempts after he rallied from being involved in a vicious accident during Saturday morning’s practice session in Turn 1. After being evaluated and cleared to compete from the medical center, Armstrong’s No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Dallara-Honda team prepared a road-course entry as a back-up entry for Armstrong’s attempt to make the main event. Despite missing the top-30 cutline on Saturday, Armstrong will have one more attempt to make the 2025 Indy 500 field on Sunday.

The second day of the PPG Armed Forces Qualifying session for the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 continues on Sunday, May 18, with the top-12 qualifiers qualifying, where six will transfer to the Firestone Fast 6 session, beginning at 4 p.m. ET on FOX. The Last Chance Qualifying session will follow suit at 5:15 p.m. ET before the Firestone Fast Six occurs at 6:25 p.m. ET, where the pole-sitter and the full field lineup will be determined.

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