Takuma Sato surges to Edmonton IndyCar pole for KV

The result was the KV driver's first road course pole, and the first time that anyone had prevented Will Power from starting first on a road or street course this year.

Power was Sato's closest rival, the Penske man getting to within 0.0509 seconds of snatching pole, but proving unable to continue his domination of qualifying.

The Ganassi team-mates will share row two, with Scott Dixon ahead of Dario Franchitti.

EJ Viso backed up Sato's pole with fifth place for KV, alongside Penske's Ryan Briscoe.

Outside the pole shoot-out group, fourth row partners Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport) and Oriol Servia (Newman/Haas) ended their qualifying sessions arguing over blocking and track manners.

Helio Castroneves was the only Penske driver to miss the Fast Six cut and starts ninth, ahead of top Canadian James Hinchcliffe in the second Newman/Haas car.

Tony Kanaan went in a different set-up direction to his KV team-mates and was back in 11th. Sebastien Bourdais (Dale Coyne Racing) shares row six with the Brazilian, having been the only other man to escape from the group stages.

Ganassi's Graham Rahal and Foyt's Vitor Meira narrowly missed making it into the top 12 session and will start 13th and 14th.

Justin Wilson was a surprise early eliminaton, the Dreyer & Reinbold driver ruing waiting too long before going out in his group. He starts 15th.

Also out at the first hurdle was Alex Tagliani. Though the Canadian had been strong in final practice, his Sam Schmidt Motorsports car did not pick up the anticipated speed on soft tyres in qualifying.

Hunter-Reay was by far the most successful of the Andretti drivers, with his team-mates Marco Andretti, Mike Conway and Danica Patrick down in 19th, 20th and 22nd.

Simona de Silvestro salvaged 16th after a difficult practice morning for HVM, while James Jakes produced his strongest IndyCar qualifying form for Dale Coyne yet in 18th.

But Paul Tracy's tough weekend failed to pick up - the Canadian hero will start on the back row for Dragon Racing.

Pos  Driver               Team               Time        Gap
 1.  Takuma Sato          KV                 1m18.5165s
 2.  Will Power           Penske             1m18.5674s  + 0.0509s
 3.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            1m18.6442s  + 0.1277s
 4.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            1m18.6628s  + 0.1463s
 5.  EJ Viso              KV                 1m18.7383s  + 0.2218s
 6.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             1m19.0267s  + 0.5102s
 7.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           1m18.6678s  Round 2
 8.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas        1m18.7142s  Round 2
 9.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             1m18.7669s  Round 2
10.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas        1m18.9323s  Round 2
11.  Tony Kanaan          KV                 1m19.0190s  Round 2
12.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dale Coyne         1m19.3802s  Round 2
13.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi            1m19.0682s  Group 1
14.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               1m18.9781s  Group 2
15.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  1m19.0732s  Group 1
16.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                1m19.2084s  Group 2
17.  Alex Tagliani        Sam Schmidt        1m19.1329s  Group 1
18.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne         1m19.3533s  Group 2
19.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           1m19.6204s  Group 1
20.  Mike Conway          Andretti           1m19.4007s  Group 2
21.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi            1m20.0348s  Group 1
22.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           1m19.4713s  Group 2
23.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold  1m20.3224s  Group 1
24.  JR Hildebrand        Panther            1m19.5237s  Group 2
25.  Paul Tracy           Dragon             1m20.4836s  Group 1
26.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest           1m19.7200s  Group 2