The stage is set for a dramatic encore to last year's at times controversial and often entertaining Honda Indy Toronto, the tenth round of the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series season.

Dario Franchitti and Will Power exchanged the top spot at the end of qualifying, before Franchitti prevailed by 0.0247 of a second for his third pole in a row and fourth at Toronto (1997, 1998, 2009).

“Not bad, 15 years since the first one! Man, that felt good!” Franchitti said. “The (Firestone) reds have so much grip, so if I could put the lap together, it would be was great.”

The last two races have ended in DNFs for Franchitti, an accident at Milwaukee and an engine failure before green at Iowa now shuffling him back to eighth in the championship, 70 points behind points leader Power.

Power, whose 2011 Toronto was compromised after contact with the eventual winner, felt relieved to get a front row starting position when it appeared the Hondas had the measure of Chevrolets in qualifying. Four Hondas made the Firestone Fast Six.  

“I'm very happy,” he admitted. “I don't know where the time came from, but I've never had to dig so deep. We don't have the outright pace, but we'll take the front row.”

Power was fortunate to make the Fast Six to begin with, as late in the second round of qualifying IndyCar ruled Takuma Sato had held him up. Sato's two fastest laps were withdrawn in a penalty, and Power offered his opinion on the situation.

“It's up to his bloody team to tell him,” he said. “I don't know if he came out of the pits or what, but it didn't help him, because he gets a penalty.”

Row two features the two drivers involved in yesterday's pit lane accident that injured crewmembers, Justin Wilson and Sebastien Bourdais. Wilson, a former Toronto polesitter, equals his best start of 2012 (Long Beach) although it's his first time actually making the Fast Six (was promoted to third by Chevrolet engine change grid penalties at Long Beach). Bourdais, meanwhile, back for the first time since Detroit, posted both his and Dragon Racing's best start of the season.

“It was great – the guys have done such a great job working away at it,” Wilson said after a fraught Friday. “I was hoping we could get on pole, but just missed it on the last couple laps. That's how it goes, and we have a good car for tomorrow.”

Bourdais was more enthusiastic with some interesting one-liners. He drives the TrueCar/McAfee No. 7 for the Dragon team.

“Since the beginning of season it has been such a struggle, plus we didn't need the extra drama (yesterday). Not bad for a bunch of cripples – that's what they said!” Bourdais said, somewhat in jest given the injuries sustained weren't serious.  “They were walking on a leg and a half. But man, for less than a tenths, .012 or something, come on. You wish you had just gone to the bathroom before. That's what makes the series so competitive.”

Honda runners Scott Dixon and Alex Tagliani completed the Fast Six.

No Andretti Autosport cars made the Fast Six, with Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe just missing out, although Hinchcliffe is one of three, along with Tagliani and Simona de Silvestro, to face a 10 grid spot penalty for an engine change. Simon Pagenaud, too, also missed out on the top six. The aforementioned Sato qualified 11th, which, despite his penalty, equals his best qualifying performance of the season.

A very top-heavy group two in the first round in qualifying saw Ryan Briscoe, Oriol Servia and the three KV Racing Technology drivers all eliminated. Servia, though, has finished fourth, fifth and fourth from 27th, 16th and 20th on the grid in the last three ABC-televised races for Panther DRR; Sunday's race in Toronto is also on ABC.

Race coverage begins live at 12:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday on ABC.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                Time        Gap
 1.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi DW12-Honda      59.3510s
 2.  Will Power           Penske DW12-Chevy       59.3757s    + 0.0247s
 3.  Justin Wilson        Coyne DW12-Honda        59.4506s    + 0.0996s
 4.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon DW12-Chevy       59.4721s    + 0.1211s
 5.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi DW12-Honda      59.5140s    + 0.1630s
 6.  Alex Tagliani        Herta DW12-Honda        59.5616s    + 0.2106s
 7.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti DW12-Chevy     59.4829s    Round 2
 8.  Helio Castroneves    Penske DW12-Chevy       59.5476s    Round 2
 9.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti DW12-Chevy     59.5958s    Round 2
10.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt DW12-Honda      59.6650s    Round 2
11.  Takuma Sato          Rahal DW12-Honda        59.8197s    Round 2
12.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi DW12-Honda      59.8966s    Round 2
13.  Mike Conway          Foyt DW12-Honda         1m00.0718s  Group 1
14.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske DW12-Chevy       59.9888s    Group 2
15.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi DW12-Honda      1m00.1557s  Group 1
16.  Oriol Servia         Panther/DRR DW12-Chevy  1m00.0004s  Group 2
17.  JR Hildebrand        Panther DW12-Chevy      1m00.4508s  Group 1
18.  Tony Kanaan          KV DW12-Chevy           1m00.1207s  Group 2
19.  James Jakes          Coyne DW12-Honda        1m00.5440s  Group 1
20.  Rubens Barrichello   KV DW12-Chevy           1m00.2043s  Group 2
21.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM DW12-Lotus          1m00.6709s  Group 1
22.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher DW12-Honda       1m00.2199s  Group 2
23.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter DW12-Chevy    1m01.0333s  Group 1
24.  Marco Andretti       Andretti DW12-Chevy     1m00.6145s  Group 2
25.  EJ Viso              KV DW12-Chevy           1m02.5280s  Group 1