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Long Beach IndyCar: Dario Franchitti snatches pole

Dario Franchitti will start Sunday's IndyCar race at Long Beach from pole position after triumphing in a hard-fought qualifying session

Ganassi driver Franchitti, who came into the Long Beach weekend last in the points standings after two disastrous opening races, used his final flying lap to deliver a 1m07.2379s that improved the benchmark laid down by Ryan Hunter-Reay by 0.0555 seconds.

Hunter-Reay's time was still good enough to keep him on the front row for Andretti, although Penske's Will Power was only a further 0.05s in arrears.

The Australian will start from third alongside Takuma Sato, who had briefly led the times with a couple of minutes remaining before the final flurry of quick laps.

Mike Conway converted his early-weekend form into a place in the Fast Six, finishing up fifth-fastest for his series return in the third Rahal Letterman entry, with Helio Castroneves set to line up alongside him.

The Ganassi team could have had two cars in the top six had Scott Dixon not spun and stopped in the middle of Turn 1 late in the first qualifying phase.

The New Zealander was fourth-fastest in his group at that point, but his stranded car - joined moments later by that of Oriol Servia, who arrived in the corner to find the road completely blocked and deliberately drove into the barriers to avoid Dixon - triggered a red flag.

Under series rules, that cost Dixon his two best laps and consigned him to the back of the grid. Servia, having been deemed equally responsible, was initially dealt the same punishment, although this was quickly rescinded by the series.

Dixon's exit should have opened the door for Marco Andretti to advance to the next phase, but he was under scrutiny from race control as well for interfering with JR Hildebrand while the latter was on a fast lap. Andretti, too, was penalised, and Hildebrand progressed in his place.

One of the early-session casulalties Justin Wilson, ran out of time to set a lap after the Dale Coyne team was instructed to change his rear wing in order to bring it into compliance with the regulations.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                   Time        Gap
 1.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m07.2379s
 2.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m07.2934s  + 0.0555s
 3.  Will Power           Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m07.3987s  + 0.1608s
 4.  Takuma Sato          Foyt Dallara-Honda         1m07.4472s  + 0.2093s
 5.  Mike Conway          Rahal Dallara-Honda        1m07.5994s  + 0.3615s
 6.  Helio Castroneves    Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m07.9698s  + 0.7319s
 7.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m07.4358s  Round 2
 8.  Tony Kanaan          KV Dallara-Chevy           1m07.5891s  Round 2
 9.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m07.6306s  Round 2
10.  EJ Viso              Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m07.7209s  Round 2
11.  Graham Rahal         Rahal Dallara-Honda        1m07.7799s  Round 2
12.  JR Hildebrand        Panther Dallara-Chevy      1m07.7902s  Round 2
13.  James Jakes          Rahal Dallara-Honda        1m07.9185s  Group 1
14.  AJ Allmendinger      Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m08.2001s  Group 2
15.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon Dallara-Chevy       1m07.9823s  Group 1
16.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher Dallara-Honda       1m08.2579s  Group 2
17.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt Dallara-Honda      1m07.9979s  Group 1
18.  Oriol Servia         Panther/DRR Dallara-Chevy  1m08.2889s  Group 2
19.  Tristan Vautier      Schmidt Dallara-Honda      1m08.1512s  Group 1
20.  Simona de Silvestro  KV Dallara-Chevy           1m08.3173s  Group 2
21.  Sebastian Saavedra   Dragon Dallara-Chevy       1m08.4404s  Group 1
22.  Alex Tagliani        Herta Dallara-Honda        1m08.6431s  Group 2
23.  Ana Beatriz          Coyne Dallara-Honda        1m09.9133s  Group 1
24.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter Dallara-Chevy    1m09.0318s  Group 2
25.  Justin Wilson        Coyne Dallara-Honda                    Group 1
26.  Marco Andretti       Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m09.4506s  Group 2
27.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m09.6706s  Group 2

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