Power quickest in final practice

In an extremely close-fought session, Penske driver Power finally secured the top spot with a 1m24.151s lap amid a late rush of quick times.

Simona de Silvestro took a surprise - and hugely impressive - second place, the HVM racer shrugging off losing all of morning practice to mechnical problems and getting within 0.0801 seconds of Power's pace.

Scott Dixon was Ganassi's top runner in third, ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay. The Andretti driver set the pace for a while and escaped a late spin without damage.

Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) and top Brazilian Helio Castroneves (Penske) completed the top six.

JR Hildebrand produced the best performance of his rookie season so far to grab seventh for Panther, just ahead of a similarly resurgent Sebastien Bourdais in the Dale Coyne Racing car.

Sam Schmidt Motorsports' Alex Tagliani - who starred here last year with an amazing front-row qualifying result on the FAZZT team's debut - topped the times at one stage in the closing minutes before falling to ninth ahead of Tony Kanaan (KV).

The session was extended by 10 minutes to make up for a 15-minute stoppage required to rebuild the tyre wall in the back straight run-off following a high-speed accident for EJ Viso. The KV driver was unhurt in the incident, which was caused by a mechanical failure.

With yellows also required at different stages to clear debris and to collect Sebastian Saavedra (Conquest) and Ana Beatriz (Dreyer & Reinbold) after they had suffered minor incidents, it was an episodic session.

Qualifying takes place in a little under two hours.

Pos  Driver               Team               Time        Gap
 1.  Will Power           Penske             1m24.1509s
 2.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                1m24.2310s  + 0.0801s
 3.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            1m24.3019s  + 0.1510s
 4.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           1m24.3039s  + 0.1530s
 5.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            1m24.3944s  + 0.2435s
 6.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             1m24.4387s  + 0.2878s
 7.  JR Hildebrand        Panther            1m24.4491s  + 0.2982s
 8.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dale Coyne         1m24.4563s  + 0.3054s
 9.  Alex Tagliani        Sam Schmidt        1m24.5096s  + 0.3587s
10.  Tony Kanaan          KV                 1m24.5128s  + 0.3619s
11.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             1m24.5417s  + 0.3908s
12.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           1m24.5875s  + 0.4366s
13.  Mike Conway          Andretti           1m24.5889s  + 0.4380s
14.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi            1m24.6605s  + 0.5096s
15.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas        1m24.6613s  + 0.5104s
16.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           1m24.6667s  + 0.5158s
17.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  1m24.7928s  + 0.6419s
18.  Takuma Sato          KV                 1m24.8441s  + 0.6932s
19.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               1m24.9250s  + 0.7741s
20.  Raphael Matos        AFS                1m24.9756s  + 0.8247s
21.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi            1m25.2024s  + 1.0515s
22.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest           1m25.3828s  + 1.2319s
23.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne         1m25.3942s  + 1.2433s
24.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas        1m25.6073s  + 1.4564s
25.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold  1m25.8430s  + 1.6921s
26.  EJ Viso              KV                 1m26.2498s  + 2.0989s