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Dario Franchitti pips Will Power in Toronto IndyCar pole battle

Dario Franchitti produced a last-gasp effort to deny Will Power pole position in qualifying for this weekend's IndyCar race on the Toronto street circuit

Power (Penske) had moved to the top of the screens with his last flying lap, but Ganassi driver Franchitti's decision to stay out for one more stab at the top spot and was rewarded with a 59.3510s, putting him ahead of Power by just 0.02 seconds.

Justin Wilson (Dale Coyne Racing), who had been on top with a minute remaining, was relegated to the second row by the Ganassi and Penske battle, with Dragon's Sebastien Bourdais rebounding from Friday's pitlane incident that left several members of his pitcrew with minor injuries to qualify fourth.

Ganassi's Scott Dixon and BHA's Alex Tagliani completed the top six, although Tagliani joins Andretti's James Hinchcliffe and HVM's Simona de Silvestro in facing a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change.

To a large extent, the grid was dictated by an extraordinarily tough draw for the second qualifying group, which included two Penske drivers, two Ganassi entries, three from Andretti Autosport and three KV Racing Technology cars all fighting to get into the top six and progress to the second qualifying segment.

Penske's Ryan Briscoe was one of those to miss out, although the fact that he would have bumped team-mate Power out of the top six had he improved with his final lap meant that it would have been a bittersweet achievement for the team even if he had found an extra tenth.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan's Takuma Sato was also in with a shout of progressing to the final six, but was docked his two quickest laps for blocking Power while returning to the racing line after running onto the marbles.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                Time        Gap
 1.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi DW12-Honda      59.3510s
 2.  Will Power           Penske DW12-Chevy       59.3757s    + 0.0247s
 3.  Justin Wilson        Coyne DW12-Honda        59.4506s    + 0.0996s
 4.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon DW12-Chevy       59.4721s    + 0.1211s
 5.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi DW12-Honda      59.5140s    + 0.1630s
 6.  Alex Tagliani        Herta DW12-Honda        59.5616s    + 0.2106s
 7.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti DW12-Chevy     59.4829s    Round 2
 8.  Helio Castroneves    Penske DW12-Chevy       59.5476s    Round 2
 9.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti DW12-Chevy     59.5958s    Round 2
10.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt DW12-Honda      59.6650s    Round 2
11.  Takuma Sato          Rahal DW12-Honda        59.8197s    Round 2
12.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi DW12-Honda      59.8966s    Round 2
13.  Mike Conway          Foyt DW12-Honda         1m00.0718s  Group 1
14.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske DW12-Chevy       59.9888s    Group 2
15.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi DW12-Honda      1m00.1557s  Group 1
16.  Oriol Servia         Panther/DRR DW12-Chevy  1m00.0004s  Group 2
17.  JR Hildebrand        Panther DW12-Chevy      1m00.4508s  Group 1
18.  Tony Kanaan          KV DW12-Chevy           1m00.1207s  Group 2
19.  James Jakes          Coyne DW12-Honda        1m00.5440s  Group 1
20.  Rubens Barrichello   KV DW12-Chevy           1m00.2043s  Group 2
21.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM DW12-Lotus          1m00.6709s  Group 1
22.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher DW12-Honda       1m00.2199s  Group 2
23.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter DW12-Chevy    1m01.0333s  Group 1
24.  Marco Andretti       Andretti DW12-Chevy     1m00.6145s  Group 2
25.  EJ Viso              KV DW12-Chevy           1m02.5280s  Group 1

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