Simon Pagenaud on Detroit IndyCar pole after Will Power penalised

Championship leader Pagenaud and fellow Saturday race win contender Helio Castroneves were in the first group in the split qualifying session, and it was Pagenaud on op with a 1m14.4104s 0.1525 seconds ahead of the Brazilian.

Power looked to have the measure of Pagenaud's time when the second group came out and became the only driver to make the 1m13s with a 1m13.8835s.

But his strong run unravelled when race stewards deemed him to have interfered with Marco Andretti's hot lap, and deleted his top two times.

That left Power fourth in his group, meaning he will start on the outside of row four for the race.

Ryan Hunter-Reay will line up on the front row alongside Pagenaud after all the penalties in the second group, which included Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi, were played out.

Castroneves and Scott Dixon will line up on row two for the second Dual in Detroit race, for coming second in their respective sessions.

It was a difficult qualifying for all three of the first race podium drivers - winner Sebastien Bourdais could only manage a sixth row start, while Juan Pablo Montoya was lowest of the Penske quartet in 10th.

Conor Daly ran an aggressive strategy on Saturday to claim his maiden podium, but was among those to have times deleted in qualifying - meaning he will start from the 11th row for the second encounter.

The session had been brought forward by 15 minutes to cover off the chance of rain.

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