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Baltimore IndyCar: Will Power dominates messy qualifying

Will Power was in dominant form during IndyCar qualifying in Baltimore, taking pole position by more than 0.5 seconds

Power delivered a best lap of 1m17.9750s to leave his Penske entry 0.5759s clear of Mike Conway, who got onto the front row with a couple of minutes to spare and promptly crashed at the chicane just after the chequered flag.

The AJ Foyt driver kept his time, but will lose his front-row starting spot due to a 10-place penalty for an unapproved engine change.

Conway's crash was completely in keeping with the character of the session, during which several drivers fell foul of the new chicane.

Graham Rahal's accident at the same spot during the opening phase of the session came before many of his rivals had posted a fast lap, resulting in some surprise early exits.

Chief among them was Ryan Hunter-Reay, whose championship hopes were dealt a huge blow when he was eliminated in segment one, along with the likes of Takuma Sato and Rubens Barrichello.

That also created opportunities for some unexpected progressions, including Ed Carpenter - who made it into the second phase of qualifying for the first time this year - and Bruno Junqueira, who is standing in for the injured Josef Newgarden at Sarah Fisher Hartman.

The second qualifying group's session was only marginally less chaotic, with Simon Pagenaud adding his name to the chicane's list of victims when he tagged the wall and broke his right-rear suspension. He was quick enough to go through to the second phase, but his car was too damaged for him to participate.

The other driver to strike trouble at the new Turn 13 was Justin Wilson, who was on target to go through to the Fast Six before he, too, got out of shape at the chicane and thumped the barriers.

JR Hildebrand was unable to take part in the session due to accident damage from his crash during morning practice.

Meanwhile, four other drivers are currently poised to join Conway in being issued 10-place penalties for unapproved engine changes or exceeding their engine allocation. Sato, Simona de Silvestro, Junqueira and Charlie Kimball all stand to have 10 places added to their qualifying positions.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                   Time        Gap
 1.  Will Power           Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m17.9750s
 2.  Mike Conway          Foyt Dallara-Honda         1m18.5509s  + 0.5759s
 3.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m18.6017s  + 0.6267s
 4.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon Dallara-Chevy       1m18.8500s  + 0.8750s
 5.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m18.9398s  + 0.9648s
 6.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m19.3101s  + 1.3351s
 7.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m19.3347s  Round 2
 8.  Tony Kanaan          KV Dallara-Chevy           1m19.6788s  Round 2
 9.  Justin Wilson        Coyne Dallara-Honda        1m20.3559s  Round 2
10.  Bruno Junqueira      Fisher Dallara-Honda       1m20.3826s  Round 2
11.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter Dallara-Chevy    1m20.4968s  Round 2
12.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt Dallara-Honda                  Round 2
13.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m21.7113s  Group 1
14.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m18.8872s  Group 2
15.  Alex Tagliani        Herta Dallara-Honda        1m22.2657s  Group 1
16.  Helio Castroneves    Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m18.9533s  Group 2
17.  Rubens Barrichello   KV Dallara-Chevy           1m22.7851s  Group 1
18.  Oriol Servia         Panther/DRR Dallara-Chevy  1m19.3365s  Group 2
19.  Takuma Sato          Rahal Dallara-Honda        1m24.5395s  Group 1
20.  Marco Andretti       Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m19.4192s  Group 2
21.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM Dallara-Lotus          1m27.2226s  Group 1
22.  James Jakes          Coyne Dallara-Honda        1m19.5496s  Group 2
23.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi Dallara-Honda                  Group 1
24.  EJ Viso              KV Dallara-Chevy           1m19.8631s  Group 2
25.  JR Hildebrand        Panther Dallara-Chevy                  Group 2

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