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 Servia, having been deemed equally responsible, was initially dealt the same punishment, although this was quickly rescinded by the series.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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