Doornbos tops third Indy qualifying

Having missed the first qualifying weekend after a pair of practice crashes, the Newman/Haas/Lanigan driver had no problem getting into the show today. Doornbos beat KV Racing's Townsend Bell - a second week addition to the entry who had been very quick in practice - by 0.4 seconds around their four-lap runs as Bell secured 24th.

Most of today's action was compressed into a hectic mid-afternoon hour, as rain showers meant that qualifying did not get underway until 3.30pm local time, three and a half hours later than planned,

As soon as the track was dry, Doornbos, Bell, Oriol Servia, Tomas Scheckter, EJ Viso, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Nelson Philippe and Buddy Lazier all queued up for successful qualifying runs, although few were pleased with their pace as the windy conditions made it hard to produce their ideal speeds. Hunter-Reay in particular remained hugely frustrated by the lack of performance in his Vision Racing car.

With conditions not conducisive to quick times, the remaining three non-qualified Dreyer & Reinbold cars, both Conquest entries and 3G Motorsport's struggling NASCAR convert Stanton Barrett held off hoping for better weather.

It took until the final 20 minutes of the session before qualifying attempts resumed, with Conquest's Alex Tagliani and D&R's Mike Conway making it into the field in 26th and 28th, while Conway's team-mate John Andretti took a more nerve-wracking 31st.

Milka Duno then completed the set for D&R by squeezing into 32nd position. She had earlier waved off a qualifying attempt after an unnerving moment in Turn 1, but at the second attempt she found enough speed to bump 1996 winners Lazier and Hemelgarn Racing out of the field, at least for tonight.

Barrett was the final man to make a qualifying attempt today, and for his iirst three laps the 3G driver looked like he might get in at Philippe's expense. However his last lap dropped him to a 217.998mph average, fractionally slower than he needed.

Bruno Junqueira will join Barrett and Lazier in trying to get into the race via tomorrow's Bump Day qualifying session. The Brazilian only completed his deal with Conquest Racing this morning and has yet to take to the track.

Today's slow times ensured that Davey Hamilton - the slowest day two qualifier last weekend - is safely in the event. Under Indy 500 rules, the slowest time in the field, rather than the driver in 33rd on the provisional grid, is the one that gets 'bumped' out on the final day of qualifying, but with none of today's qualifiers beating Hamilton's time, the Dreyer & Reinbold driver can relax tomorrow.

Current Indianapolis 500 starting line-up:

Pos  Driver             Team                     Speed
 1.  Helio Castroneves  Penske                   224.864mph
 2.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske                   224.083mph
 3.  Dario Franchitti   Ganassi                  224.010mph
 4.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan      223.954mph
 5.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi                  223.867mph
 6.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green           223.612mph
 7.  Mario Moraes       KV                       223.331mph
 8.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green           223.114mph
 9.  Will Power         Penske                   223.028mph
10.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green           222.882mph
11.  Alex Lloyd         Schmidt/Ganassi          222.622mph
12.  Raphael Matos      Luczo Dragon             223.429mph
13.  Paul Tracy         KV                       223.111mph
14.  Vitor Meira        Foyt                     223.054mph
15.  Justin Wilson      Coyne                    222.903mph
16.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green           222.805mph
17.  Ed Carpenter       Vision                   222.780mph
18.  Dan Wheldon        Panther                  222.777mph
19.  AJ Foyt IV         Foyt                     222.586mph
20.  Scott Sharp        Panther                  222.162mph
21.  Sarah Fisher       Fisher                   222.082mph
22.  Davey Hamilton     Dreyer & Reinbold        221.956mph
23.  Robert Doornbos    Newman/Haas/Lanigan      221.692mph
24.  Townsend Bell      KV                       221.195mph
25.  Oriol Servia       Rahal Letterman          220.984mph
26.  Alex Tagliani      Conquest                 220.543mph
27.  Tomas Scheckter    Coyne                    220.212mph
28.  Mike Conway        Dreyer & Reinbold        220.124mph
29.  EJ Viso            HVM                      219.971mph
30.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Vision                   219.502mph
31.  John Andretti      Dreyer & Reinbold/Petty  219.442mph
32.  Milka Duno         Dreyer & Reinbold        218.040mph
33.  Nelson Philippe    HVM                      218.032mph