Power pips Wilson to pole

Power's 58.403-second lap, at an average speed of 121.617 mph, was a new track record.

The Team Australia driver, who was not informed that he already had the top slot, pushed harder on the next lap, just before the chequered flag fell, and lost it at Turn 3.

Power caught the slide but in the process bounced over the grass and lost his front wing. However, no-one was able to beat his time.

Wilson, in the RSPORTS car, looked the most likely to take pole for much of the session but felt Power backed him up and cost him his fastest time.

Due to the 11 minutes of red flag time due to incidents from Paul Tracy (who wiped out his front wing on a wall exiting Turn 3) and Alex Figge (who spun into the grass exiting Turn 4), the track was very crowded in the closing minutes, and there were a lot of people who felt they had been blocked.

Bourdais, who will start  second due to being quickest in yesterday's qualifying session, was only fourth fastest this afternoon, believing Tracy's repaired car backed up Dale Coyne Racing driver Bruno Junqueira who in turn backed into him.

This contributed to the reigning champion being outpaced by Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing teammate Graham Rahal.

However, Junqueira said he did not know what Bourdais was talking about, and was relatively happy to just take his second consecutive top six qualifying position.

Fifth fastest went to Neel Jani who was the sole representative of PKV Racing as teammate Tristan Gommendy's is still undergoing medical examinations following his shunt yesterday.

Ryan Dalziel was delighted to record his best qualifying position of the season, with eighth place for Pacific Coast Motorsports, attributing his improved pace to gaining knowledge of the circuit.

It was enough to put the Scot ahead of the second RSPORTS car of Alex Tagliani, who has been on the back foot in terms of set-up since crashing early in this morning's session, and who was relying on his Friday team to slot into ninth..

Dan Clarke outqualified championship-leading teammate Robert Doornbos for the first time this season, but the Dutch Minardi Team USA driver only completed eight laps before a suspected alternator problem parked him.

Katherine Legge's half of the Dale Coyne Racing team did a spectacular job to repair her car in time to get five laps in, following her major shunt this morning.

She will start 15th, just behind the Forsythe Championship Racing duo of Oriol Servia and Paul Tracy, the latter losing his fastest lap for causing the red flag early in the session.

Starting grid:

Pos  Driver            Team                              Time
 1.  Will Power        Team Australia                  58.403 
 2.  S.Bourdais        Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing      58.596 + 0.193
 3.  Justin Wilson     RSPORTS                         58.410 + 0.007
 4.  Graham Rahal      Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing      58.485 + 0.082
 5.  Neel Jani         PKV Racing                      58.762 + 0.359
 6.  Bruno Junqueira   Dale Coyne Racing               58.846 + 0.443
 7.  Simon Pagenaud    Team Australia                  58.868 + 0.465
 8.  Ryan Dalziel      Pacific Coast Motorsports       59.256 + 0.853
 9.  Alex Tagliani     RSPORTS                         59.483 + 1.080
10.  Dan Clarke        Minardi Team USA                59.503 + 1.100
11.  Robert Doornbos   Minardi Team USA                59.553 + 1.150
12.  Jan Heylen        Conquest Racing                 59.561 + 1.158
13.  Oriol Servia      Forsythe Championship Racing    59.582 + 1.179
14.  Paul Tracy        Forsythe Championship Racing  1:00.107 + 1.704
15.  Katherine Legge   Dale Coyne Racing             1:00.222 + 1.819
16.  Alex Figge        Pacific Coast Motorsports     1:00.937 + 2.534
17.  Tristan Gommendy  PKV Racing                     No time