Power still unbeatable in qualifying

Penske driver Power's unbeaten qualifying run looked like it might come to an end when Hunter-Reay (Andretti) put in 1m09.141s lap to go half a second clear of his rivals in the pole shoot-out.

But Power was able to dig a bit deeper on his next lap and depose Hunter-Reay by 0.076 seconds. A minor error on the American's attempted response meant Hunter-Reay had to settle for second.

In an encouraging session for Andretti Autosport, Hunter-Reay's team-mate Mike Conway took third on the grid, having held provisional pole for a while.

The Briton shares row two with Oriol Servia, as Newman/Haas quickly put its driver's morning crash in the past and ran strongly throughout qualifying.

Justin Wilson rebounded from a disappointing run in practice to fight through to the 'fast six' session and qualify fifth, beating Penske's Helio Castroneves.

Wilson, Servia and Conway's star performances meant several big name did not reach the pole shoot-out. None of the Ganassi cars made the cut, leaving Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon on row four - the latter feeling Power had impeded him at a crucial moment.

But an even bigger shock was practice pacesetter Ryan Briscoe's inability to get above 12th. Feeling his Penske team had gone off-course with the set-up for qualifying, Briscoe was only half a second away from the fastest time and 0.2s from making the cut but was still slowest in the session.

Alex Tagliani maintained his run of top-12 starts with ninth for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, ahead of KV's top runner Tony Kanaan and Servia's consistently impressive rookie team-mate James Hinchcliffe.

Vitor Meira (Foyt) and Marco Andretti (Andretti) narrowly missed out on top 12 qualification in their round one groups, during which Sebastian Saavedra impressed again by securing 15th for Conquest ahead of Ganassi's Graham Rahal, who criticised JR Hildebrand after the session for allegedly getting in his way. Takuma Sato will start only 22nd after crashing late in the first part of qualifying.

Paul Tracy's return did not begin well as he was slowest in his group and will line up 25th for Dragon Racing. That puts him two rows behind his sometime arch-rival Sebastien Bourdais (Dale Coyne Racing).

Pos  Driver               Team               Time        Gap
 1.  Will Power           Penske             1m09.0649s
 2.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           1m09.1409s  + 0.0760s
 3.  Mike Conway          Andretti           1m09.6414s  + 0.5765s
 4.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas        1m09.6828s  + 0.6179s
 5.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  1m09.8097s  + 0.7448s
 6.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             1m09.8423s  + 0.7774s
 7.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            1m10.1465s  (Round 2)
 8.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            1m10.6407s  (Round 2)
 9.  Alex Tagliani        Sam Schmidt        1m10.3477s  (Round 2)
10.  Tony Kanaan          KV                 1m09.9400s  (Round 2)
11.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas        1m10.1146s  (Round 2)
12.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             1m10.5883s  (Round 2)
13.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               1m10.7836s  (Group 1)
14.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           1m10.8672s  (Group 2)
15.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest           1m11.0249s  (Group 1)
16.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi            1m11.0341s  (Group 2)
17.  EJ Viso              KV                 1m10.8050s  (Group 1)
18.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                1m10.8197s  (Group 2)
19.  Raphael Matos        AFS                1m10.8592s  (Group 1)
20.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           1m11.4916s  (Group 2)
21.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dale Coyne         1m10.1010s  (Group 1)
22.  Takuma Sato          KV                 1m09.7352s  (Group 2)
23.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne         1m09.8122s  (Group 1)
24.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi            1m09.8243s  (Group 2)
25.  Paul Tracy           Dragon             1m09.6037s  (Group 1)
26.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold  1m09.6385s  (Group 2)
27.  JR Hildebrand        Panther            1m09.6497s  (Group 2)