» Honda Grand Prix of Alabama Qualifying: Power on pole again

(Our ever-observant Indy reporter Matt Lennon has enjoyed an exciting qualifying session for tonight’s INDY Honda Grand Prix of Alabama, where Will Power will start for the best possible position to make it a hat-trick of race victories: pole position.)

Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi! Oi! Oi!

Could Will Power joint the ranks of Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon and Kenny Brack by winning three IndyCar races in a row? Or join the ranks of Sebastian Bourdais, Paul Tracy and A.J. Foyt by winning the FIRST three IndyCar races of a season in a row? By taking pole position for the inaugural IndyCar Grand Prix of Alabama, due to take place tomorrow morning Australian-time, Power has given himself the best chance possible.

Dreyer & Reinbold will also be celebrating with Mike Conway putting himself 2nd on the grid. Despite being slightly more than 6 tenths slower, Ryan Briscoe will surely be disappointed with 9th place, however as a road racing specialist, don’t write him off. Three races in, Jimmy Vasser and Kevin Kalkhoven’s investments in Takuma Sato are now paying dividends with the Formula 1 veteran qualifying an impressive 6th.

Those who are not familiar with the IndyCar qualifying format will probably feel confused after seeing the times on the grid below. Put as simply as possible, the field of 25 cars is split into two groups of 12 and 13 cars respectively, with the fastest six from each group going through into a Top-12 shootout. Positions 13 through 25 on the grid are determined depending on which session they participated in, with the odd numbered positions going to drivers in Session 1, and the even numbered grid positions going to drivers in Session 2.

The fastest six from the Top-12 shootout go through into the Firestone Fast-6 session, with positions 7 through 12 going to those who did not make it into this session. Told you it was simple.

Honda Grand Prix of Alabama – Final Qualifying Results:

	Driver	Team	Time
1.	Will Power	Verizon Team Penske	1:10.135
2.	Mike Conway	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	1:10.650
3.	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	1:10.656
4.	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	1:11.070
5.	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	1:11.355
6.	Takuma Sato	KV Racing Technology	1:11.438
7.	Dario Franchitti	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	1:10.630
8.	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Autosport	1:10.690
9.	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske	1:10.760
10.	E.J. Viso	KV Racing Technology	1:10.775
11.	Justin Wilson	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	1:10.775
12.	Mario Moraes	KV Racing Technology	1:11.521
13.	Simona de Silvestro	HVM Racing	1:11.026
14.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	1:10.744
15.	Graham Rahal	Sarah Fisher Racing	1:11.149
16.	Alex Lloyd	Dale Coyne Racing	1:10.952
17.	Hideki Mutoh	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	1:11.285
18.	Raphael Matos	Dragon/de Ferran Motorsports	1:11.050
19.	Danica Patrick	Andretti Autosport	1:11.534
20.	Vitor Meira	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1:11.134
21.	Alex Tagliani	FAZZT Race Team	1:11.566
22.	Mario Romancini	Conquest Racing	1:11.602
23.	Dan Wheldon	Panther Racing	1:11.609
24.	Milka Duno	Dale Coyne Racing	1:15.142
25.	Bertrand Baguette	Conquest Racing RACB	1:11.980