Scott Dixon takes first pole of 2011 with commanding performance at Mid-Ohio

Having topped his group and round two, Dixon banged in an early 1m08.0776s effort in the final six shoot-out. That was never bettered - giving the Kiwi the 16th pole of his career.

"It's been a pretty smooth weekend, and its nice to be on pole," said Dixon. "It's been a long time since pole for me so it's nice to be back in that situation, but tomorrow is another day."

Dixon will share the front row with Ryan Briscoe, who was the last driver to qualify for the final six shoot-out but then turned out to be Dixon's biggest challenger, eventually finishing +0.258s off pole.

Championship leaders Dario Franchitti and Will Power will share the second row after qualifying third and fourth respectively.

For Power, it is the second consecutive time he will not start from pole on a road or street course, the Australian having held a perfect record before Takuma Sato broke his streak at Edmonton.

Ryan Hunter-Reay, pacesetter in second practice, will start from fifth, with Graham Rahal lining up alongside him to give Ganassi three cars inside the top six.

James Hinchcliffe missed out on the top six shoot-out by just 0.338s - Briscoe claiming the final spot - and will start from seventh, alongside Sam Schmidt's Alex Tagliani.

Edmonton pole-sitter Sato will share the fifth row with Charlie Kimball, who completed Ganassi's strong qualifying as all four cars finished inside the top ten.

With Justin Wilson in hospital following his accident in second practice, replacement Simon Pagenaud performed admirably despite the extremely short notice, putting the No.22 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing car in 18th position.

Rain threatened but never materialised during the session, although the cool conditions did prove troublesome in terms of finding the perfect set-up.

Pos  Driver               Team               Time        Gap

 1.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            1m08.0776s  
 2.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             1m08.3359s  + 0.2583s
 3.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            1m08.4016s  + 0.3240s
 4.  Will Power           Penske             1m08.4212s  + 0.3436s
 5.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           1m08.5796s  + 0.5020s
 6.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi            1m08.7423s  + 0.6647s
 7.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas        1m08.7701s  Round 2
 8.  Alex Tagliani        Sam Schmidt        1m08.8412s  Round 2
 9.  Takuma Sato          KV                 1m08.8653s  Round 2
10.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi            1m08.8655s  Round 2
11.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dale Coyne         1m08.9115s  Round 2
12.  EJ Viso              KV                 1m08.9427s  Round 2
13.  JR Hildebrand        Panther            1m09.4161s  Group 1
14.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                1m09.3009s  Group 2
15.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             1m09.4369s  Group 1
16.  Tony Kanaan          KV                 1m09.3013s  Group 2
17.  Mike Conway          Andretti           1m09.4904s  Group 1
18.  Simon Pagenaud       Dreyer & Reinbold  1m09.3851s  Group 2
19.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               1m09.6061s  Group 1
20.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas        1m09.4935s  Group 2
21.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           1m09.6059s  Group 1
22.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest           1m09.7105s  Group 2
23.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           1m10.2166s  Group 1
24.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne         1m09.8061s  Group 2
25.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold  1m10.4537s  Group 1
26.  Martin Plowman 	  Sam Schmidt	     1m10.2533s  Group 2
27.  Ed Carpenter         Sarah Fisher       1m12.3720s  Group 2