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Franchitti takes Milwaukee pole

Dario Franchitti claimed his and the Ganassi team's first pole position of the 2011 IndyCar season in Milwaukee qualifying

The reigning champion was quickest in both today's practice sessions, and carried that form through to qualifying with a two-lap average of 170.841mph after a run he rated as his best ever at the Wisconsin one-mile oval.

Ganassi looked set for a front row sweep for a while as Franchitti's team-mate Scott Dixon held provisional pole before the Scot's qualifying attempt.

But Helio Castroneves improved a low-key day for Penske by getting between the Ganassi duo to take second late in a session which saw his team-mates Ryan Briscoe and Will Power only eighth and 17th, leaving the latter particularly frustrated.

KV Racing Technology maintained its very strong practice form to put all three of its cars in the top six - Tony Kanaan starting fourth ahead of his team-mates Takuma Sato and EJ Viso.

Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti qualified either side of Briscoe in seventh and ninth, with Oriol Servia completing the top 10 for Newman/Haas and Dreyer & Reinbold's Ana Beatriz securing a career-best 11th.

Alex Tagliani's run of pole positions for Sam Schmidt Motorsports came to an end at Milwaukee, the Canadian ending up 19th.

Qualifying was interrupted by a violent crash for Simona de Silvestro, who spun into the barriers at Turn 4 then had a secondary impact with the inside wall. The HVM driver was carefully removed from her car and then taken to hospital for checks and observation. She was awake and alert, but complaining of stiffness.

Pos  Driver               Team               Speed
 1.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            170.841
 2.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             169.999
 3.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            169.582
 4.  Tony Kanaan          KV                 169.365
 5.  Takuma Sato          KV                 169.308
 6.  EJ Viso              KV                 169.082
 7.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           169.014
 8.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             168.598
 9.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           168.456
10.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas        168.320
11.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold  167.863
12.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi            167.674
13.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  167.621
14.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         167.162
15.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           166.779
16.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas        166.558
17.  Will Power           Penske             166.248
18.  JR Hildebrand        Panther            166.070
19.  Alex Tagliani        Sam Schmidt        166.031
20.  Mike Conway          Andretti           166.003
21.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi            165.592
22.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               165.375
23.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne         164.814
24.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest           164.440
25.  Ed Carpenter         Sarah Fisher       163.304
26.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM

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