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Ryan Briscoe fastest in Long Beach IndyCar qualifying, Dario Franchitti gets pole

Ryan Briscoe secured the bonus point for topping qualifying for Sunday's IndyCar race in Long Beach, although the grid penalties that have been incurred by all Chevrolet teams mean that Dario Franchitti will start from pole

Franchitti was the only driver in the final round of qualifying not to be carrying a 10-place penalty, meaning that pole was already guaranteed for the Ganassi driver. But the session remained hard-fought nonetheless, with Briscoe producing a 1m08.6089s in the final seconds to put himself 0.0984 seconds ahead of Penske team-mate Will Power.

Andretti's Ryan Hunter-Reay was third-fastest in the session ahead of Franchitti, EJ Viso (KV Racing) and James Hinchcliffe (Andretti).

Sarah Fisher Hartman rookie Josef Newgarden was knocked out of the running at the end of the second phase of qualifying, but he still managed to be the second highest-placed of the non-penalised cars and will share the front row with Franchitti.

Dale Coyne Racing's Justin Wilson will be moved up to third on the grid once the penalties are assessed, with Briscoe to line up in 11th place.

All of the three phases of qualifying were eventful, although the most bizarre incident involved Franchitti's team-mate Scott Dixon. Flame erupted from the rear of the New Zealander's car early in the second phase, forcing him into the pits to have the flare-up extinguished. He quickly rejoined, only for the flames to reappear as soon as he rejoined the track, prompting another flurry of black flags. Fortunately the gearbox-related fire did not cause any engine damage.

All 11 of the Chevrolet-powered cars and three Lotus-powered cars were hit with 10 place grid penalties going into the session after making unauthorised engine changes.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                      Time        Gap
 1.  Ryan Briscoe*        Penske DW12-Chevy             1m08.6089s
 2.  Will Power*          Penske DW12-Chevy             1m08.7073s  + 0.0984s
 3.  Ryan Hunter-Reay*    Andretti DW12-Chevy           1m08.7163s  + 0.1074s
 4.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi DW12-Honda            1m09.0327s  + 0.4238s
 5.  EJ Viso*             KV DW12-Chevy                 1m09.0634s  + 0.4545s
 6.  James Hinchcliffe*   Andretti DW12-Chevy           1m09.2109s  + 0.6020s
 7.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher DW12-Honda             1m09.0697s  Round 2
 8.  Helio Castroneves*   Penske DW12-Chevy             1m09.0846s  Round 2
 9.  Justin Wilson        Coyne DW12-Honda              1m09.0910s  Round 2
10.  Tony Kanaan*         KV DW12-Chevy                 1m09.1987s  Round 2
11.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt DW12-Honda            1m09.2078s  Round 2
12.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi DW12-Honda            1m09.3658s  Round 2
13.  Takuma Sato          Rahal DW12-Honda              1m09.9000s  Group 1
14.  Mike Conway          Foyt DW12-Honda               1m09.8868s  Group 2
15.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi DW12-Honda            1m09.9796s  Group 1
16.  JR Hildebrand*       Panther DW12-Chevy            1m10.3794s  Group 2
17.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi DW12-Honda            1m10.0188s  Group 1
18.  Marco Andretti*      Andretti DW12-Chevy           1m10.5939s  Group 2
19.  Rubens Barrichello*  KV DW12-Chevy                 1m10.0651s  Group 1
20.  Oriol Servia*        Dreyer & Reinbold DW12-Lotus  1m10.6835s  Group 2
21.  Alex Tagliani        BHA DW12-Lotus                1m10.8168s  Group 1
22.  James Jakes          Coyne DW12-Honda              1m10.7579s  Group 2
23.  Ed Carpenter*        Carpenter DW12-Chevy          1m11.4519s  Group 1
24.  Sebastien Bourdais*  Dragon DW12-Lotus             1m10.8154s  Group 2
25.  Katherine Legge*     Dragon DW12-Lotus             1m12.1142s  Group 1
26.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM DW12-Lotus                1m12.0590s  Group 2

* = Will be given 10-place engine change penalty

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