Briscoe beats Wilson to Mid-Ohio pole

The Penske driver faced a strong challenge from star underdog Justin Wilson in the Dale Coyne Racing entry. But after closing to within 0.0193 seconds of championship leader Briscoe, Wilson had to settle for second.

The Briton completed his final run a couple of minutes early, leaving Briscoe to cruise around in case any of the other contenders could close the 0.3s gap between the top two - who were the only ones to save fresh tyres for the Fast Six segment - and their rivals. They were unable to, and Briscoe duly clinched his third pole of the season.

Friday pace-setter Scott Dixon was Ganassi's top qualifier in third, having been quickest of all in the preliminary sessions, with his team-mate Dario Franchitti three places further back.

Graham Rahal snatched fourth late on in the Fast Six session, the Newman/Haas/Lanigan driver squeezing Briscoe's Penske team-mate Helio Castroneves back to fifth.

Ryan Hunter-Reay just missed out on a top six spot in an extremely impressive performance for AJ Foyt's team. He will start seventh, ahead of Andretti Green's lead driver Tony Kanaan, who could not replicate his Friday practice form, but made it through to the top 12 session despite spinning near the end of his initial group qualifying.

HVM's EJ Viso did likewise - going off at almost exactly the same time as Kanaan in group one, before taking ninth on the grid. Paul Tracy, back at KV Racing deputising for Mario Moraes while the Brazilian attends his father's funeral, completed the top ten.

Oriol Servia was squeezed out of the top 12 late in the group sessions, and will start his return to the IndyCar Series from 14th on the grid. Robert Doornbos, who Servia has replaced at Newman/Haas/Lanigan, was 18th on his return to his former Champ Car squad HVM.

Pos  Driver             Team                 Time
 1.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske               1m06.6814s
 2.  Justin Wilson      Coyne                1m06.7007s
 3.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              1m07.0238s
 4.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1m07.0640s
 5.  Helio Castroneves  Penske               1m07.1809s
 6.  Dario Franchitti   Ganassi              1m07.3791s
 7.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Foyt                 1m07.2364s
 8.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green       1m07.5083s
 9.  EJ Viso            HVM                  1m07.5712s
10.  Paul Tracy         KV                   1m07.6129s
11.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green       1m07.6699s
12.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green       1m07.7440s
13.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green       1m08.1779s
14.  Oriol Servia       Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1m08.4314s
15.  Raphael Matos      Luczo Dragon         1m08.2311s
16.  Mike Conway        Dreyer & Reinbold    1m08.5495s
17.  Dan Wheldon        Panther              1m08.8176s
18.  Robert Doornbos    HVM                  1m08.5734s
19.  Richard Antinucci  3G                   1m08.8516s
20.  Milka Duno         Dreyer & Reinbold    1m14.5371s
21.  Ed Carpenter       Vision               1m09.7141s