Castroneves earns fourth Indy pole

Under the revised 2010 system, the top nine drivers from the first five hours of Pole Day qualifying went into a 90-minute battle for pole position.

Penske driver Castroneves opted to run first, and set a stunning average speed of 227.971mph.

None of his eight rivals for the top spot could get within 1mph of that mark on their initial runs, and Castroneves' total four-lap time was nearly one second clear of his pursuers.

That margin was eroded, but no one could beat Castroneves, who secured the pole position for a second straight year. He went almost as quickly on the first three laps of a second run, before waving it off as his pole was clearly secure. The new rules make pole even more valuable - with Castroneves earning 15 points and $175,000 for his efforts today.

Penske will fill three of the top four positions on the grid, with only Ganassi's Dario Franchitti preventing a front row sweep for Roger Penske's squad.

Franchitti was provisionally second for a while, but was ultmately beaten by Penske's Will Power, who closed to within 0.4mph of Castroneves in the end as he pushed Franchitti back to third.

Penske's Ryan Briscoe and Ganassi's Scott Dixon were fourth and sixth, split by another great effort from Alex Tagliani and the Fazzt team, who could not quite replicate their top three results from earlier but still claimed a fine fifth.

Rahal Letterman Racing will start its first IndyCar race since last year's 500 from seventh place thanks to Graham Rahal's run today, with fellow returnee Ed Carpenter eighth in the Panther/Vision entry and Hideki Mutoh completing row three for Newman/Haas.

With positions 10 to 24 on the grid settled during the first five hours of qualifying today, all that remains on Bump Day tomorrow is to decide who occupies the back three rows, with at least two drivers set to miss out given the size of this year's field.

Pos  Driver               Team               Speed
 1.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             227.970mph
 2.  Will Power           Penske             227.578mph
 3.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            226.990mph
 4.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             226.554mph
 5.  Alex Tagliani        Fazzt              226.390mph
 6.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            226.223mph
 7.  Graham Rahal         Rahal Letterman    225.519mph
 8.  Ed Carpenter         Panther/Vision     224.507mph
 9.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas        223.487mph
10.  Townsend Bell        Ganassi/Schmidt    225.097mph
11.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  225.050mph
12.  Raphael Matos        de Ferran Dragon   225.029mph
13.  Mario Moraes         KV                 224.888mph
14.  Davey Hamilton       de Ferran Dragon   224.852mph
15.  Mike Conway          Dreyer & Reinbold  224.583mph
16.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           224.575mph
17.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           224.548mph
18.  Dan Wheldon          Panther            224.465mph
19.  EJ Viso              KV                 224.380mph
20.  Tomas Scheckter      Dreyer & Reinbold  224.261mph
21.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold  224.243mph
22.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                224.228mph
23.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           224.219mph
24.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest           224.189mph