Rookie team Prema Racing and rookie driver Robert Shwartzman took pole for the 2025 Indianapolis 500 in spectacular fashion.
In what is both his and Prema's first oval event, Shwartzman became the first rookie to win the pole since Teo Fabi in 1983 while no team has taken pole at the first attempt since Teddy Mayer's Mayer Motor Racing did so 1984, ensuring both will go down in history for the 109th running of the race.
Shwartzman went fastest as the fourth driver on track in the Fast Six pole position shootout session, immediately beating Takuma Sato, Scott Dixon and Alex Palou.
Fast Six four-lap averages
1 Robert Shwartzman 232.790mph (2m34.6459s)
2 Takuma Sato 232.478mph (2m34.8534s)
3 Pato O’Ward 232.098mph (2m35.1069s)
4 Scott Dixon 232.052mph (2m35.1377s)
5 Felix Rosenqvist 231.987mph (2m35.1809s)
6 Alex Palou 231.378mph (2m35.5894s)
Then it was a case of whether Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward or Meyer Shank's Felix Rosenqvist could unseat him, and neither could.
Prema wasn't even ready to start practice on the first day on Tuesday, and rain plagued the early running, but even with reduced track time the team has arrived at one of the most complicated events in sport and delivered the fastest qualifying run in racing over four-laps and 10 miles.
Robert Shwartzman is the first rookie to win the #Indy500 pole since 1983. pic.twitter.com/MmQIGTerVM
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 18, 2025
Sato was the antidote to team-mate Graham Rahal narrowly missing out on Saturday's second day of qualifying by taking an excellent second. It meant both of the series' engine suppliers were in the top two, with Chevrolet holding off Honda to take pole for a second year in a row.
Two-time winner Sato will start ahead of O'Ward, who claimed a place on the front row for the first time for Arrow McLaren.
Dixon took fourth ahead of Rosenqvist, who'd topped the Fast 12 qualifying segment, with their respective Ganassi and Meyer Shank teams working well together in their technical partnership to put half the cars in the Fast Six.
Many expected championship leader Alex Palou to be the driver with the best chance of beating Scott McLaughlin to pole, but come Sunday his car seemed to lose its edge and he could only manage sixth.
"There was not much more," he said on the radio.
The fight for pole was not contested by Penske. Two of its cars weren't allowed to qualify over alleged modifications made in the pitlane, and Scott McLaughlin crashed the other one in practice, denying him the chance to repeat his pole from a year ago.
What happened before that
David Malukas was the fastest driver to miss out on graduating to the Fast Six but will be happy to have qualified so high after missing last year's event, which he spent working for IndyCar's social media team after he'd been dropped by McLaren.
Christian Lundgaard never qualified higher than 28th for the Indy 500 at Rahal Letterman Lanigan but took eighth ahead of Marcus Ericsson, who had to scrape through Bump Day qualifying last year just to make the field.
Rosenqvist had topped the times in that session ahead of O'Ward, Shwartzman, Dixon, Palou and Sato.
Drivers eliminated in Fast 12
7 David Malukas 231.599mph (2m35.4411s)
8 Christian Lundgaard 231.360mph (2m35.6015s)
9 Marcus Ericsson 231.014mph (2m35.8347s)
10 Scott McLaughlin - practice crash
11 Josef Newgarden - failed tech
12 Will Power - failed tech
What happened in last chance qualifying
On bump day, for the second year in a row a Dale Coyne driver was knocked out of the field as rookie Jacob Abel missed out.
He battled his team-mate Rinus VeeKay whose tactics almost cost him a spot in the race having previously never qualified lower than seventh.
