Takuma Sato claims first IndyCar pole position at Iowa
Takuma Sato claimed his first IndyCar Series pole position in qualifying for the Iowa round
In another strong short-oval performance for KV Racing Technology, Sato's pole position was backed up by a third place for his team-mate Tony Kanaan, who held provisional pole for a long while after an early qualifying run.
The KV duo were split by Danica Patrick, in the Andretti Autosport driver's best qualifying performance of the year so far.
With JR Hildebrand taking a strong fourth place for Panther Racing, the best of the Penske and Ganassi cars were back on row three, which will be shared by title rivals Will Power (Penske) and Dario Franchitti (Ganassi).
James Hinchcliffe impressed with seventh place for Newman/Haas, despite missing much of morning practice with a broken oil line.
Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay and Mike Conway took eighth and ninth, ahead of Ryan Briscoe in the next Penske entry. The team's third driver Helio Castroneves was back in 13th, while a very slow first lap in an oversteering car left Ganassi's Scott Dixon way back in 23rd.
Simona de Silvestro withdrew from the event earlier in the day, when a medical examination revealed that the HVM driver was still suffering from the effects of concussion from her Milwaukee qualifying crash.
Pos Driver Team Speed (mph) 1. Takuma Sato KV 180.375 2. Danica Patrick Andretti 180.210 3. Tony Kanaan KV 179.833 4. JR Hildebrand Panther 179.569 5. Will Power Penske 179.474 6. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 179.474 7. James Hinchcliffe Newman/Haas 179.385 8. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti 179.305 9. Mike Conway Andretti 179.185 10. Ryan Briscoe Penske 178.771 11. Oriol Servia Newman/Haas 178.742 12. Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold 178.631 13. Helio Castroneves Penske 178.570 14. Ed Carpenter Sarah Fisher 178.510 15. Alex Tagliani Sam Schmidt 178.426 16. Vitor Meira Foyt 178.365 17. Marco Andretti Andretti 178.165 18. Ana Beatriz Dreyer & Reinbold 177.821 19. EJ Viso KV 177.680 20. Graham Rahal Ganassi 177.509 21. Charlie Kimball Ganassi 177.280 22. Alex Lloyd Dale Coyne 177.257 23. Scott Dixon Ganassi 175.784 24. James Jakes Dale Coyne 173.365 25. Sebastian Saavedra Conquest Order set by average speed over two laps
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