Ryan Briscoe and Team Penske continued their strong form in the final practice session prior to today's Pole Day qualifying at Indianapolis. The Australian's teammate Helio Castroneves made it a Penske one-two, repeating yesterday's practice result, with Will Power taking a strong fifth in the third Penske entry.
Ganassi was Penske's main rival again, with Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti third and fourth fastest, although Franchitti stopped on track due to a gearbox problem 25 minutes from the end.
Mario Moraes put in an impressive performance for KV Racing to take sixth place.
After disappointing times in practice so far, Tony Kanaan has switched to a new car for today. Based on the chassis his Andretti Green team-mate Hideki Mutoh used at Kansas Speedway, the patchwork liveried machine was seventh this morning.
Graham Rahal (Newman/Haas/Lanigan), Marco Andretti (AGR) and Dan Wheldon (Panther) completed the top ten.
Rahal's teammate Robert Doornbos had the only accident of the session, spinning into the Turn 2 wall. The Indy 500 rookie was using his back-up car this morning after crashing his primary chassis yesterday, so must be a doubt for this afternoon's qualifying session. He was still classified 12th fastest despite the incident.
The six-hour qualifying session commences at midday local time. All drivers get three shots at challenging for pole position in the session, which will set the top 11 places on the Indy 500 grid.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1. Ryan Briscoe Penske 39.9676s
2. Helio Castroneves Penske 40.0847s + 0.1171s
3. Scott Dixon Ganassi 40.1992s + 0.2316s
4. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 40.1999s + 0.2323s
5. Will Power Penske 40.2098s + 0.2422s
6. Mario Moraes KV 40.2547s + 0.2871s
7. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 40.2876s + 0.3200s
8. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan 40.3339s + 0.3663s
9. Marco Andretti Andretti Green 40.3352s + 0.3676s
10. Dan Wheldon Panther 40.3607s + 0.3931s
11. Danica Patrick Andretti Green 40.3743s + 0.4067s
12. Robert Doornbos Newman/Haas/Lanigan 40.3844s + 0.4168s
13. Justin Wilson Coyne 40.4273s + 0.4597s
14. Vitor Meira Foyt 40.5413s + 0.5737s
15. Raphael Matos Luczo Dragon 40.5681s + 0.6005s
16. Ed Carpenter Vision 40.6116s + 0.6440s
17. Paul Tracy KV 40.6417s + 0.6741s
18. Alex Lloyd Schmidt/Ganassi 40.7173s + 0.7497s
19. EJ Viso HVM 40.8051s + 0.8375s
20. AJ Foyt IV Foyt 40.8156s + 0.8480s
21. Davey Hamilton Dreyer & Reinbold 40.8278s + 0.8602s
22. Milka Duno Dreyer & Reinbold 40.8410s + 0.8734s
23. Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold 40.8671s + 0.8995s
24. Sarah Fisher Fisher 40.8672s + 0.8996s
25. Nelson Philippe HVM 41.0524s + 1.0848s
26. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green 41.1706s + 1.2030s
27. John Andretti Petty/Dreyer & Reinbold 41.1828s + 1.2152s
28. Ryan Hunter-Reay Vision 41.9439s + 1.9763s