Power takes superb Long Beach pole

Power, who had deputised for Castroneves during the Brazilian's tax evasion trial, is only confirmed in the third Penske entry for this weekend and Indianapolis, but advertised his potential in fine style in this afternoon's qualifying session.

He quickly took provisional pole in the decisive Fast Six session, and was able to withstand a late challenge from Ganassi's Dario Franchitti to take the top spot by a tenth of a second.

Power had spent Friday practice in Castroneves' car while the Brazilian's trial came to an end, but Penske had already prepared the #12 in the event that Castroneves was exonerated and free to join the Long Beach field. Having topped second practice in the #3, Power picked up where he left off in his new car and has set himself up for a repeat of the victory he took in last year's Champ Car finale in Long Beach.

Rookie Raphael Matos took a superb third place for Luczo Dragon Racing for only his second IndyCar start, with EJ Viso joining him on the second row as the HVM driver produced his best qualifying performance yet.

Justin Wilson could not quite emulate his St Petersburg form, despite being fastest of all in part one of qualifying, but still reached the Fast Six and took fifth place ahead of reigning champion Scott Dixon (Ganassi).

Power outshone his full-time team-mates and was the only Penske driver in the Fast Six session.

There would be no fairytale return for Castroneves, who spun into the Turn 1 wall at the end of round two and will start eighth, with St Petersburg winner Ryan Briscoe back in 10th in the third Penske after sliding down the Turn 9 escape road a few minutes before Castroneves crashed.

St Petersburg pole-sitter Graham Rahal missed out on a Fast Six spot this time and will start seventh for Newman/Haas/Lanigan, while Alex Tagliani shrugged off poor practice form to get his cash-strapped Conquest team into the top ten again in ninth.

It was another dreadful session for Andretti Green, as even lead driver Tony Kanaan failed to break into the top ten, ending up 11th. After his massive practice crash, Hideki Mutoh took his rebuilt car to 17th, while Marco Andretti was an off the pace 19th and Danica Patrick could only manage 22nd having spun at Turn 10 and removed her front wing on the barriers.

Other prominent departures in the first rounds of qualifying included Newman/Haas/Lanigan's Robert Doornbos, whose car ran out of fuel on its first run and could not muster sufficient speed once revived, and Dreyer & Reinbold's Mike Conway. The British rookie was fastest for a while in the first round, but was pushed outside the top six cut-off in the frantic final moments.

Pos  Driver             Team                 Time
 1.  Will Power         Penske               1m09.7107s
 2.  Dario Franchitti   Ganassi              1m09.8675s
 3.  Raphael Matos      Luczo Dragon         1m10.2043s
 4.  EJ Viso            HVM                  1m10.2232s
 5.  Justin Wilson      Dale Coyne           1m10.2680s
 6.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              1m10.4038s
 7.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1m10.0283s
 8.  Helio Castroneves  Penske               1m10.1139s
 9.  Alex Tagliani      Conquest             1m10.1278s
10.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske               1m10.2126s
11.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green       1m10.3032s
12.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Vision               1m10.4339s
13.  Mario Moraes       KV                   1m10.8459s
14.  Dan Wheldon        Panther              1m10.5503s
15.  Robert Doornbos    Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1m10.9577s
16.  Mike Conway        Dreyer & Reinbold    1m10.6059s
17.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green       1m11.1177s
18.  Darren Manning     Dreyer & Reinbold    1m11.2411s
19.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green       1m11.2307s
20.  Vitor Meira        Foyt                 1m11.4487s
21.  Stanton Barrett    3G                   1m14.4863s
22.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green       1m11.6660s
23.  Ed Carpenter       Vision               1m11.9069s