Sao Paulo IndyCar: Hunter-Reay takes pole, disaster for Power

The reigning champion broke Will Power's track record with his 1m20.4312s effort, which left him 0.3 seconds clear of Andretti team-mate EJ Viso.

Dario Franchitti was third-fastest alongside Tony Kanaan, who did a superb job to get himself on the second row considering that he is still feeling the effects of a hand tendon injury sustained at Long Beach.

James Hinchcliffe was fifth-fastest, giving Andretti three cars in the top six, with Scott Dixon set to line up alongside him.

Hunter-Reay's pole aside, the story of the session was the disaster at Penske, which had both Power and Helio Castroneves eliminated in the opening phase.

The pair had not yet banked a lap when James Jakes's car broke down on the circuit and brought out the red flags, leaving Power facing the prospect of having to win from 22nd on the grid if he is to keep his perfect record in Brazil intact.

Tristan Vautier's tough start to the weekend continued when he completed an unfortunate hat-trick of hitting the wall in three consecutive sessions. On this occasion, his downfall came when he launched himself over the Turn 1 kerb and went straight into the Turn 2 wall during the first segment.

That brought out the red flag a few seconds early, costing several drivers including Oriol Servia the chance to complete their final flying lap.

Vautier was docked his two best laps for causing the stoppage, and the next qualifying phase was briefly delayed while the barrier was repaired. The Frenchman is the only driver on this year's grid to have never raced in Sao Paulo previously.

His accident had a knock-on effect for team-mate Simon Pagenaud, who faces the same consequences as the Penske pair for not getting a lap in early.

Sarah Fisher Hartman's Josef Newgarden was forced to sit the session out due to an engine change.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                   Time        Gap
 1.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m20.4312s
 2.  EJ Viso              Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m20.7380s  + 0.3068s
 3.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m20.8922s  + 0.4610s
 4.  Tony Kanaan          KV Dallara-Chevy           1m20.9812s  + 0.5500s
 5.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m20.9893s  + 0.5581s
 6.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m21.1183s  + 0.6871s
 7.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon Dallara-Chevy       1m20.8210s  Round 2
 8.  Simona de Silvestro  KV Dallara-Chevy           1m20.9390s  Round 2
 9.  Justin Wilson        Coyne Dallara-Honda        1m21.0570s  Round 2
10.  Marco Andretti       Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m21.1716s  Round 2
11.  JR Hildebrand        Panther Dallara-Chevy      1m21.2961s  Round 2
12.  Takuma Sato          Foyt Dallara-Honda         1m21.3618s  Round 2
13.  Oriol Servia         Panther DRR Dallara-Chevy  1m21.7963s  Group 1
14.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter Dallara-Chevy    1m24.0203s  Group 2
15.  Alex Tagliani        Herta Dallara-Honda        1m21.8636s  Group 1
16.  Ana Beatriz          Coyne Dallara-Honda        1m24.8864s  Group 2
17.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m22.2482s  Group 1
18.  Helio Castroneves    Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m25.1734s  Group 2
19.  Graham Rahal         Rahal Dallara-Honda        1m22.2998s  Group 1
20.  Sebastian Saavedra   Dragon Dallara-Chevy                   Group 2
21.  Tristan Vautier      Schmidt Dallara-Honda                  Group 1
22.  Will Power           Penske Dallara-Chevy                   Group 2
23.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher Dallara-Honda                   Group 1
24.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt Dallara-Honda                  Group 2
25.  James Jakes          Rahal Dallara-Honda                    Group 2