Power quick, Sato crashes in practice

But the session was interrupted for nearly half an hour when Takuma Sato had a heavy accident at Turn 2. The former grand prix driver eventually got out of his severely damaged KV car unaided, but was taken to Methodist Hospital for precautionary x-rays having complained of back pain.

Provided he is given medical clearance, Sato is expected back at the speedway later today, and although he will miss the pole qualifying session, he should be able to participate in tomorrow's Bump Day qualifying.

Sato's crash damaged the SAFER barrier and left a large amount of oil on the track, meaning that it took some time to get the track back in shape so practice could continue.

Prior to the accident, Power had set his lap of 39.5351s/227.646mph just three laps into his morning and could not be beaten.

But the man who got closest to usurping Penske's Australian was Alex Tagliani - whose stunning performances for Fazzt have made him the month's underdog hero so far. Having taken second with a speed of 227.513mph this morning, Tagliani and his fledgling team will head into qualifying full of confidence.

Penske still had two cars in the top three, with Ryan Briscoe third.

Davey Hamilton also marked himself out as a potential giant-killer by going fifth for De Ferran Dragon Racing, having been fourth until a last-minute improvement from Ganassi's Scott Dixon.

Dixon's team-mate Dario Franchitti completed the top six, with Tony Kanaan the top Andretti Autosport driver in eighth behind Dan Wheldon.

Last year's winner Helio Castroneves took ninth in the final Penske Dallara-Honda, followed by Dreyer & Reinbold duo Justin Wilson and Mike Conway.

Pos  Driver               Team               Time      Gap
 1.  Will Power           Penske             39.5351s
 2.  Alex Tagliani        Fazzt              39.5582s  + 0.0231s
 3.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             39.6774s  + 0.1423s
 4.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            39.7228s  + 0.1877s
 5.  Davey Hamilton       de Ferran Dragon   39.7501s  + 0.2150s
 6.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            39.7588s  + 0.2237s
 7.  Dan Wheldon          Panther            39.7841s  + 0.2490s
 8.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti           39.8237s  + 0.2886s
 9.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             39.8308s  + 0.2957s
10.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  39.8499s  + 0.3148s
11.  Mike Conway          Dreyer & Reinbold  39.8555s  + 0.3204s
12.  Ed Carpenter         Panther/Vision     39.8679s  + 0.3328s
13.  Raphael Matos        de Ferran Dragon   39.8805s  + 0.3454s
14.  Graham Rahal         Rahal Letterman    39.8887s  + 0.3536s
15.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas        39.9108s  + 0.3757s
16.  Townsend Bell        Ganassi/Schmidt    39.9118s  + 0.3767s
17.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         39.9232s  + 0.3881s
18.  Jay Howard           Sarah Fisher       39.9632s  + 0.4281s
19.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                39.9634s  + 0.4283s
20.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           39.9836s  + 0.4485s
21.  AJ Foyt IV           Foyt               39.9902s  + 0.4551s
22.  EJ Viso              KV                 39.9918s  + 0.4567s
23.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold  40.0297s  + 0.4946s
24.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           40.0540s  + 0.5189s
25.  Mario Moraes         KV                 40.0555s  + 0.5204s
26.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               40.0903s  + 0.5552s
27.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest           40.0910s  + 0.5559s
28.  Sebastian Saavedra   Herta              40.1409s  + 0.6058s
29.  Takuma Sato          KV                 40.1416s  + 0.6065s
30.  Tomas Scheckter      Dreyer & Reinbold  40.1877s  + 0.6526s
31.  Paul Tracy           KV                 40.2801s  + 0.7450s
32.  Mario Romancini      Conquest           40.2896s  + 0.7545s
33.  Milka Duno           Dale Coyne         40.3169s  + 0.7818s
34.  John Andretti        Andretti           40.3443s  + 0.8092s
35.  Sarah Fisher         Sarah Fisher       40.3522s  + 0.8171s