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Mid-Ohio IndyCar: Sebastien Bourdais takes another pole in wet

Sebastien Bourdais survived a tricky qualifying session at Mid-Ohio to secure his second IndyCar pole position in two weeks

The Frenchman, who claimed his first post-Champ Car pole and win in Toronto a fortnight ago, triumphed with his final flying lap on a damp but drying track to secure the top spot with a time of 1m24.1610s.

"We had pace earlier this year but got it wrong more often than not," KV driver Bourdais said. "Now, for one reason or another, it is finally going our way.

"I don't know if we'd have had [the pace] in dry conditions in qualifying, but in the wet the car was definitely strong. It was doing everything I wanted it to do."

Until Bourdais came along, the driver to beat had been Sarah Fisher Hartman racer Josef Newgarden, who moved to the top with two minutes remaining.

He too improved his time with his final lap, and although he fell 0.5 seconds short of Bourdais, he will still start Sunday's race from the front row.

Tony Kanaan will start from third, salvaging something from an otherwise frustrating afternoon for Ganassi, which will go into the race with Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe and Charlie Kimball all starting from the rear of the field.

Dixon and Briscoe were both docked their two fastest times for spinning and causing red flags; a fate that also befell Takuma Sato in the first qualifying segment, and Juan Pablo Montoya in the second.

Carlos Munoz qualified fourth despite serving two drive-through penalties for pitlane speeding, with his Andretti team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay and Penske's Will Power completing the top six.

Power's team-mate and current points leader Helio Castroneves failed to progress from the second qualifying segment.

Pos  Driver              Team/Engine      Time        Gap
 1.  Sebastien Bourdais  KV/Chevy         1m24.1610s
 2.  Josef Newgarden     Fisher/Honda     1m24.6787s  +0.5177s
 3.  Tony Kanaan         Ganassi/Chevy    1m25.0290s  +0.8680s
 4.  Carlos Munoz        Andretti/Honda   1m25.3111s  +1.1501s
 5.  Ryan Hunter-Reay    Andretti/Honda   1m25.4459s  +1.2849s
 6.  Will Power          Penske/Chevy     1m26.1692s  +2.0082s
 7.  Graham Rahal        Rahal/Honda      1m33.3244s  Round 2
 8.  Justin Wilson       Coyne/Honda      1m33.3948s  Round 2
 9.  Simon Pagenaud      Schmidt/Honda    1m33.5587s  Round 2
10.  Carlos Huertas      Coyne/Honda      1m33.6635s  Round 2
11.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Penske/Chevy     1m34.7103s  Round 2
12.  Mike Conway         Carpenter/Chevy  1m34.8194s  Round 2
13.  Mikhail Aleshin     Schmidt/Honda    1m39.4755s  Group 1
14.  Sebastian Saavedra  KV/Chevy         1m39.0743s  Group 2
15.  Helio Castroneves   Penske/Chevy     1m39.8694s  Group 1
16.  Marco Andretti      Andretti/Honda   1m39.8368s  Group 2
17.  James Hinchcliffe   Andretti/Honda   1m41.5197s  Group 1
18.  Jack Hawksworth     Herta/Honda      1m40.0797s  Group 2
19.  Ryan Briscoe        Ganassi/Chevy                Group 1
20.  Charlie Kimball     Ganassi/Chevy    1m40.8624s  Group 2
21.  Takuma Sato         Foyt/Honda                   Group 1
22.  Scott Dixon         Ganassi/Chevy                Group 2

All drivers use Dallara chassis

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