Sears Point IndyCar: Will Power beats Ryan Briscoe to pole

Power claimed the top spot with a best lap of 1m17.2709, beating team-mate Ryan Briscoe by 0.1638s.

Sebastien Bourdais, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti completed the top six.

"I had a feeling it would be between Briscoe and myself, and it was a good battle," Power said.

"It's been a good track for Penske, we have consistent cars here and I think the race is going to be pretty wide open with the way the windows work out, extending the race by 10 laps. And there will probably be more passing, too."

Title contender Ryan Hunter-Reay's fears about being able to run with the Penske's proved well-founded, with the American getting knocked out in the second qualifying round.

Others who exited early included Rubens Barrichello, who was the sole KV driver to progress from the first round, and Graham Rahal, who joined Sebastien Saavedra in missing the cut in the first phase by just 0.02s.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                   Time        Gap
 1.  Will Power           Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m17.2709s
 2.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m17.4347s  + 0.1638s
 3.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon Dallara-Chevy       1m17.7497s  + 0.4788s
 4.  Helio Castroneves    Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m18.1090s  + 0.8381s
 5.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m18.2126s  + 0.9417s
 6.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m18.3462s  + 1.0753s
 7.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m18.3355s  Round 2
 8.  Alex Tagliani        Herta Dallara-Honda        1m18.4168s  Round 2
 9.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt Dallara-Honda      1m18.4334s  Round 2
10.  Justin Wilson        Coyne Dallara-Honda        1m18.6258s  Round 2
11.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m18.7885s  Round 2
12.  Rubens Barrichello   KV Dallara-Chevy           1m18.9788s  Round 2
13.  Sebastian Saavedra   AFS/Andretti Dallara-Chevy 1m18.8918s  Group 1
14.  Marco Andretti       Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m18.8925s  Group 2
15.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m18.8981s  Group 1
16.  Mike Conway          Foyt Dallara-Honda         1m18.9048s  Group 2
17.  JR Hildebrand        Panther Dallara-Chevy      1m19.0931s  Group 1
18.  Tony Kanaan          KV Dallara-Chevy           1m18.9475s  Group 2
19.  EJ Viso              KV Dallara-Chevy           1m19.3953s  Group 1
20.  Oriol Servia         Panther/DRR Dallara-Chevy  1m18.9672s  Group 2
21.  Katherine Legge      Dragon Dallara-Chevy       1m19.6414s  Group 1
22.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m19.0262s  Group 2
23.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher Dallara-Honda       1m19.7468s  Group 1
24.  Takuma Sato          Rahal Dallara-Honda        1m19.2821s  Group 2
25.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM Dallara-Lotus          1m20.2295s  Group 1
26.  James Jakes          Coyne Dallara-Honda        1m19.5152s  Group 2
27.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter Dallara-Chevy    1m19.6837s  Group 2