Power earns record eighth pole of '10

The championship leader left it late before using the faster 'red' tyres in his group session to make it through, then was knocked out of the top six in round two in the closing stages and had to produce a last-minute lap to secure his place in the Fast Six pole shoot-out. But having reached the crucial segment, there was no stopping Power, as he beat his Penske team-mate Helio Castroneves to the top spot by 0.037 seconds.

Dario Franchitti, Power's nearest title rival, was nearly half a second behind in third.

As practice had hinted, it was Alex Tagliani who infiltrated the Penske/Ganassi group in the Fast Six. The Fazzt driver took fourth place, pushing Ryan Briscoe (Penske) and Scott Dixon (Ganassi) back to the third row.

Dreyer & Reinbold's Justin Wilson missed out on a Fast Six spot by a narrow 0.0088s and will start seventh, ahead of Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay and Tony Kanaan. Raphael Matos (De Ferran Dragon) completes the top 10.

Simona de Silvestro had another strong run for HVM in 11th, while Dan Wheldon (Panther) led his group for a while, was pushed down to seventh and outside the cut-off, then squeezed back in at the expense of Graham Rahal, who then lost another place to his Newman/Haas team-mate Hideki Mutoh. Wheldon went on to qualify 12th in round two.

Wilson only just made it through to the top 12 with a last gasp effort - which came at the expense of Formula Renault 3.5 champion Bertrand Baguette, who will therefore start 13th for Conquest.

Pos  Driver               Team               Time        Session
 1.  Will Power           Penske             1m16.5282s  Fast six
 2.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             1m16.5652s  Fast six
 3.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            1m16.9437s  Fast six
 4.  Alex Tagliani        Fazzt              1m17.2068s  Fast six
 5.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             1m17.2108s  Fast six
 6.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            1m17.3469s  Fast six
 7.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  1m16.9447s  Round 2
 8.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           1m17.1317s  Round 2
 9.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti           1m17.3181s  Round 2
10.  Raphael Matos        De Ferran Dragon   1m17.3710s  Round 2
11.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                1m17.7429s  Round 2
12.  Dan Wheldon          Panther            1m17.8280s  Round 2
13.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest           1m17.5238s  Group 1
14.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas        1m17.5186s  Group 2
15.  EJ Viso              KV                 1m17.6825s  Group 1
16.  Graham Rahal         Newman/Haas        1m17.5284s  Group 2
17.  Takuma Sato          KV                 1m17.7112s  Group 1
18.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           1m17.6216s  Group 2
19.  JR Hildebrand        Dreyer & Reinbold  1m17.7659s  Group 1
20.  Mario Moraes         KV                 1m17.7532s  Group 2
21.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               1m17.9149s  Group 1
22.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         1m18.0422s  Group 2
23.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           1m18.3995s  Group 1
24.  Milka Duno           Dale Coyne         1m22.2980s  Group 2
25.  Francesco Dracone    Conquest           1m21.2262s  Group 1