Briscoe quickest as Power crashes

Power was on his eighth lap of the session when he went off at Turn 1 and had a violent rearward impact with the tyre barriers. The Australian was unhurt, and the team immediately began work on rebuilding the car ready for qualifying at 12.35pm local time.

While Power's crew commenced the repair effort, his rivals were engaged in rapid-fire place-swapping at the front of the field, as the lead changed hands constantly while drivers tried qualifying set-ups late on.

Briscoe ended up on top with a 1m07.1256s, ahead of Ganassi's Dario Franchitti by just 0.0087 seconds.

A strong session for KV Racing saw EJ Viso and Mario Moraes leap to third and fourth late on, with their team-mate Takuma Sato in eighth.

Helio Castroneves (Penske) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport) completed the top six ahead of Ganassi's Scott Dixon.

Another strong road course run from Simona de Silvestro saw the HVM driver take 10th, just behind Dreyer & Reinbold's Justin Wilson. Friday pacesetter Graham Rahal (Newman/Haas) was back in 11th this morning, while Dreyer & Reinbold's debutant JR Hildebrand could not repeat his stunning Friday form but took a still highly respectable 15th.

Pos  Driver               Team               Time        Gap
 1.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             1m07.1256s
 2.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            1m07.1343s  + 0.0087s
 3.  EJ Viso              KV                 1m07.3965s  + 0.2709s
 4.  Mario Moraes         KV                 1m07.4558s  + 0.3302s
 5.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             1m07.4891s  + 0.3635s
 6.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           1m07.4907s  + 0.3651s
 7.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            1m07.5053s  + 0.3797s
 8.  Takuma Sato          KV                 1m07.5536s  + 0.4280s
 9.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  1m07.6484s  + 0.5228s
10.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                1m07.6700s  + 0.5444s
11.  Graham Rahal         Newman/Haas        1m07.7939s  + 0.6683s
12.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti           1m07.7954s  + 0.6698s
13.  Raphael Matos        De Ferran Dragon   1m07.7983s  + 0.6727s
14.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest           1m07.8151s  + 0.6895s
15.  JR Hildebrand        Dreyer & Reinbold  1m07.8403s  + 0.7147s
16.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           1m07.9092s  + 0.7836s
17.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas        1m07.9567s  + 0.8311s
18.  Alex Tagliani        FAZZT              1m08.0204s  + 0.8948s
19.  Adam Carroll         AFS/Andretti       1m08.0288s  + 0.9032s
20.  Vitor Meira          AJ Foyt            1m08.2615s  + 1.1359s
21.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         1m08.3637s  + 1.2381s
22.  Dan Wheldon          Panther            1m08.3708s  + 1.2452s
23.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           1m08.3839s  + 1.2583s
24.  Will Power           Verizon Penske     1m09.4844s  + 2.3588s
25.  Jay Howard           Sarah Fisher       1m10.3392s  + 3.2136s
26.  Milka Duno           Dale Coyne         1m11.6510s  + 4.5254s
27.  Franceso Dracone     Conquest           1m12.6090s  + 5.4834s