Briscoe on top as Viso has big crash

The Australian led his Penske team-mate Will Power, but a late improvement by Ganassi's Scott Dixon denied Penske a top three sweep.

The session was interrupted by a long yellow for a massive crash by KV's EJ Viso, who was fortunate to escape injury.

Viso ran wide over the large kerb at the first corner, then speared into the inside wall as he rejoined, having possibly broken his suspension as the car jumped over the strip of grass between the run-off and the track.

After a heavy, near head on, impact, the KV Dallara then rebounded back into the outside wall and had a second hard hit before coming to rest near the exit of Turn 2 with substantial damage to both sides. Thankfully Viso was able to walk away unscathed.

Briscoe, who had been quickest in Friday's session as well, moved to the front shortly before the crash and remained on top thereafter, 0.0162 seconds ahead of Power.

Helio Castroneves got the third Penske car up to third in the closing minutes, but was pushed back to fourth by Dixon's late run. Castroneves had earlier caused a brief yellow when he spun and stalled mid-corner at Turn 8.

Marco Andretti set the pace for a while and ended up fifth for Andretti Autosport, ahead of Dario Franchitti (Ganassi), Justin Wilson (Dreyer & Reinbold) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti).

Viso held on to ninth in the results despite his accident, and was just ahead of his team-mate Takuma Sato, who had a quick spin on his last run but had already done enough to earn 10th.

Pos  Driver               Team               Time        Gap
 1.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             1m30.1910s
 2.  Will Power           Penske             1m30.2072s  + 0.0162s
 3.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            1m30.4899s  + 0.2990s
 4.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             1m30.5152s  + 0.3243s
 5.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           1m30.5619s  + 0.3710s
 6.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            1m30.5849s  + 0.3939s
 7.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  1m30.9152s  + 0.7242s
 8.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           1m30.9162s  + 0.7252s
 9.  EJ Viso              KV                 1m30.9877s  + 0.7968s
10.  Takuma Sato          KV                 1m31.1183s  + 0.9274s
11.  Raphael Matos        De Ferran Dragon   1m31.1632s  + 0.9722s
12.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti           1m31.2689s  + 1.0779s
13.  Mario Moraes         KV                 1m31.4298s  + 1.2388s
14.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas        1m31.4955s  + 1.3046s
15.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         1m31.7119s  + 1.5209s
16.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           1m31.7261s  + 1.5351s
17.  Dan Wheldon          Panther            1m31.8575s  + 1.6665s
18.  Adam Carroll         AFS/Andretti       1m32.1357s  + 1.9447s
19.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               1m32.2812s  + 2.0902s
20.  Paul Tracy           Dreyer & Reinbold  1m32.4126s  + 2.2216s
21.  Mario Romancini      Conquest           1m32.4581s  + 2.2671s
22.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                1m32.5451s  + 2.3541s
23.  Alex Tagliani        Fazzt              1m32.7607s  + 2.5697s
24.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest           1m33.3148s  + 3.1239s
25.  Milka Duno           Dale Coyne         1m35.9548s  + 5.7639s