Arrow McLaren star Pato O'Ward will start the 2025 Grand Prix of Portland in pole position after a dominant performance in qualifying, whereas Alex Palou made a rare mistake and spun around. The Mexican driver came out after the session and was surprised at the Arrow McLaren 1-2 in qualifying.Coming into the Grand Prix of Portland, O'Ward was 121 points behind the championship leader, Palou. While it was still mathematically possible, it was a huge wall to climb. Portland also hasn't been a strong track for the Papaya team in the past, and the Mexican driver was shocked after the qualifying performance.Pato O'Ward and Christian Lundgaard looked in good shape in the first two qualifying sessions and easily made it to the Fast 6. However, the threat from the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing driver was imminent. Unfortunately for Alex Palou, made a costly mistake in the Fast 6 with less than 2 minutes left on the clock.The Spaniard locked up the inside tires and went straight into the barrier. Although Palou was able to recover the car, his fastest lap time was deleted as he brought out the caution and impeded the laps of those behind him.Lundgaard set the fastest lap time, but will not start the race from the pole position because of the grid penalty given to him earlier today. Arrow McLaren changed the power unit on the #7 Chevrolet between Practice 1 and Practice 2, Lundgaard's fifth power unit of the season, leading to a six-place grid penalty.Pato O'Ward will start on pole position, whereas Lundgaard will start P7. The championship leader, Alex Palou, will start P5. The Mexican driver was left surprised by the team's performance at Portland during the qualifying as he said,“This is a bit of a surprising qualifying considering where we were in Practice, we were still kind of inching away and trying to make it better. So much changes in a year, I mean, where we were last year. Great job to Christian on getting the fastest lap time there.”“We did it back to back to back on all three qualifying sessions, so I was super happy with that. The car just just came alive, I don't really have an explanation but we didn't really change anything from practice. I'm happy with the qualifying and we'll be leading the field to green,” added Pato O'Ward.Alex Palou needs 40 points in the last three races to beat Pato O'Ward to the 2025 IndyCar championship Alex Palou’s win at Laguna Seca put him in a strong position for the championship, increasing the gap from 99 points to 121 points. The Spaniard needed just 41 points coming into Portland to take the championship home.Pato O'Ward failed to take the pole position and didn't get the bonus points, meaning Alex Palou now needs just 40 points. The Spaniard will get 15 points just for starting the last three races (five each) and will need 25 points on top of that to secure the championship.The Spaniard needs an average finish of 16th in the remaining races to take the title home, irrespective of where O'Ward finishes.