WATCH: Alex Palou & Graham Rahal battle it out on the pit road during IndyGP
Graham Rahal overtook Alex Palou as the track went green on lap one at the Sonsio Grand Prix. The pair then battled for the majority of the race, and this fight continued into the pit lane as the two came into their pitboxes for their second stop at the same time.
The 36-year-old leapfrogged the Spaniard on the race start and showcased the impressive performance of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing cars as he started to pull away from Palou. Moreover, Devlin DeFrancesco had started to put pressure on the Chip Ganassi Racing driver during the first stint, which led fans to go haywire on the possibility of Rahal bagging his first win since 2017.
Though Alex Palou freed himself from the chasing Canadian driver, he put his head down to track down Graham Rahal. The reigning champion was then helped by Jacob Abel, holding up the race leader.
This led Rahal to expend his precious push-to-pass allowance, lined up behind the Dale Coyne Racing driver, but Palou remained in his rear-view mirrors. In a bid to lose the Spaniard from his chuff, the 36-year-old dived into the pits for his second stop, but the CGR driver followed in him and their battle continued into the pitlane:
While Rahal was able to maintain his lead at the pit exit, he was overtaken by Alex Palou a few laps later in the race. The Spaniard ultimately made it four wins in five this season, with Rahal finishing down in sixth place.
Alex Palou revealed about the pressure on his shoulders to win the Sonsio IndyCar Grand Prix
With the Spaniard taking over the race lead, he stretched out his advantage in the front. But, David Malukas' stopped car led to the caution flag flying over the racetrack after more than 400 laps of consecutive green flag racing in the 2025 season.
Despite this, Alex Palou managed to win the race. Talking about potentially winning the race after claiming the pole position on Friday (May 9), the 28-year-old said in the post-qualifying press conference:
"That would be very nice. I don't know if many people would be happy with that. Yeah, that's what I would like."
The triple champion further revealed how he had pressure to win races despite his impressive form, as he added:
"I mean, there's always pressure. Chip doesn't care if I won at Barber last week. He kind of forgets about it, and it's normal. Everybody does in the team. You cannot say, Oh, yeah, I won last week, so I can take a week off. You need to still perform."
"That's what I like. I like to be up front. We don't do it to win and celebrate and then that's it. I think the pressure is still there, but it's a good kind of pressure."
On the other hand, Graham Rahal sank in the leaderboard after he struggled with managing his tires and was unable to get away from his pit box during his third pit stop, making it an unremarkable day for him at the IMS after leading the most laps of the race.