Alex Palou won the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey by nearly two seconds Sunday in Monterey, Calif., to take over the NTT IndyCar Series championship points lead.

The two-time IndyCar Series champion outpaced Colton Herta by 1.978 seconds at the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Alexander Rossi finished in third place 4.5136 seconds back.

The Chip Ganassi Racing team member and native of Spain earned his 12th career win.

“It was a chaotic race, man,” Palou said. “Didn’t do a really good job on the start, and those restarts at the beginning lost what we’ve been working so hard in qualifying to get that first position, but (the team) did a tremendous job.”

Several collisions and cautions late made things interesting in the end, but Palou maintained his poise in closing out the win after leading for a race-high 48 laps. He leads Will Power by 19 points in the standings with nine races left.

“The strategy was a bit risky for the position we were in, but we knew we had the pace, and we just had to execute, so it was fun.

“Overall an amazing win for the 10 DHL car.”

The winding “corkscrew” course limited max speeds, though Palou managed a best-lap time of 1:09.0790.

The drivers got off to an exciting start with Kyle Kirkwood overtaking Palou, the pole position holder, early on. Kirkwood, who ultimately finished fifth (three spots below his starting spot) led for 24 laps.

Romain Grosjean finished in fourth. Herta led for eight laps, while Rossi led for 10. The only other driver to lead was 19th-place finisher Josef Newgarden, who led for five.

–Field Level Media