Dario Franchitti on pole for Milwaukee IndyCar race

The British driver won at the one-mile oval last year, but struggled to find a workable set-up during the opening practice sessions. However changes made by the Ganassi team allowed him to post a best average across two laps of 168.737mph.

"I am very pleased as much as I am surprised," he said. "That's quite a turnaround from practice. Practice is one thing, qualifying is another and then there is the race. As warm as it is, people are fighting the car and everyone wants the same line"

Last weekend's Texas race-winner Justin Wilson (Dale Coyne Racing) was second quickest with 168.287mph, however the Brit is one of seven drivers to have been dealt a 10-place grid penalty for an unauthorised engine change, meaning that he will start from 12th.

Wilson's penalty promotes Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay onto the front row alongside Franchitti, although the American felt that he could have potentially gone quicker still had he not gone too short with his gears.

KV Racing's Rubens Barrichello will benefit from a similar penalty for Penske's Will Power to start from third alongside Helio Castroneves. Current points leader Power will line up 14th, although he can take some consolation from the fact that his closest rival Scott Dixon (Ganassi) was also penalised and will line up five places behind him.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                Speed
 1.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi DW12-Honda      168.737
 2.  Justin Wilson        Coyne DW12-Honda        168.287
 3.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti DW12-Chevy     167.911
 4.  Will Power           Penske DW12-Chevy       167.361
 5.  Rubens Barrichello   KV DW12-Chevy           166.899
 6.  Helio Castroneves    Penske DW12-Chevy       166.763
 7.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher DW12-Honda       166.699
 8.  EJ Viso              KV DW12-Chevy           166.066
 9.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske DW12-Chevy       166.031
10.  Tony Kanaan          KV DW12-Chevy           165.915
11.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi DW12-Honda      165.726
12.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt DW12-Honda      165.369
13.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti DW12-Chevy     165.312
14.  Takuma Sato          Rahal DW12-Honda        165.285
15.  Marco Andretti       Andretti DW12-Chevy     164.893
16.  JR Hildebrand        Panther DW12-Chevy      164.321
17.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi DW12-Honda      164.198
18.  Alex Tagliani        Herta DW12-Honda        163.866
19.  Katherine Legge      Dragon DW12-Chevy       163.516
20.  James Jakes          Coyne DW12-Honda        162.020
21.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi DW12-Honda      161.079
22.  Oriol Servia         Panther/DRR DW12-Chevy  160.375
23.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter DW12-Chevy    160.308
24.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM DW12-Lotus          160.115
25.  Mike Conway          Foyt DW12-Honda         159.794