“The Max Verstappen of IndyCar”: Fans react as Alex Palou wins the Sonsio Grand Prix at IMS

Chip Ganassi Racing star Alex Palou won the 2025 IndyCar Sonsio Grand Prix at the IMS road course. As the Spaniard won his fourth race is the season out of five, the fans came out and hailed the #10 CGR driver as they compared his dominance to Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen.

Alex Palou came into the Sonsio Grand Prix as the championship leader, the previous race winner (at Barber), and to complete his three-peat. The 28-year-old started the weekend by topping the first practice session.

Palou easily made it to the Fast 6 in the qualifying and took the pole position by a 4-tenth margin over Graham Rahal in P2. Although Graham Rahal was able to get past Palou at the start of the race, the Spaniard was able to pass the RLL driver in the second half of the race, creating a 10+ second lead before the caution came out.

Despite the caution, Alex Palou was again able to pull a 5+ second lead in the last 10 laps and won the race to complete his three-peat, and increase his lead in the championship. Having won 4 of the 5 races, fans compared the CGR driver's season to Max Verstappen's 2023 F1 season, where the Dutchman won 19 of the 22 races.

“Definitely the Max Verstappen of Indycar,” commented a fan on IndyCar's tweet about Palou's race win.

“Alex Verstappen!’ commented another.

A fan responded with, “Genuinely how the f*ck does he do it? The team is not so dominant and he's pulling up Verstappen level wins ffs”

Another group of fans questioned what F1 would've been like if Alex Palou had fulfilled the Arrow McLaren contract and made the move to the F1 team.

“If Palou had signed with McLaren last year he would have won the world championship.”

“Zak Brown could’ve had Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Alex Palou, Pato O’Ward, and Kyle Larson (1 race). McLaren was legit so close to becoming a motorsports version of the Los Angeles Dodgers 😮 Palou is just incredible dawg 💀” , commented another fan.

With the Indy 500 weekend up next on the driver's roster, a fan asked the series to already surrender the championship trophy to Palou’s dominance if he wins the greatest spectacle in racing. The fan said,

“If he wins the 500, everyone might as well forfeit the rest of the season 😭”

The Indy 500 is scheduled in 2 weeks at the IMS, as Palou prepares to attempt his first-ever race win at an oval.

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Alex Palou sets his sights on the Indy 500 victory

The Spaniard has been racing in IndyCar for a little over 5 years, has won three championships already, and is possibly on his way to his fourth. However, Alex Palou hasn't won a single oval race yet in his IndyCar career.

The #10 CGR driver spoke with FOX Sports after the race and detailed how he now moves into preparing for the Indy 500, and plans on winning the greatest spectacle in racing.

“It's amazing. It's unbelievable. Hopefully we get to stay here (P1) again in a couple of weeks for the biggest race of the year and, yeah. Cannot say anything else and just, thank you.” (via FOX live broadcast)

The Indy 500 prep will begin on Tuesday, May 13, with the practice sessions. The race will take place on Sunday, May 25, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.