» IndyCars: Franchitti on Long Beach pole

Dario Franchitti will be aiming for a drama-free weekend at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach after claiming his thirtieth IndyCar Series pole position around the 1.968-mile street circuit.

In a closely-fought ‘Fast Six’ qualifying session, the Scot narrowly edged out reigning champion Ryan Hunter-Reay to top spot by just five-hundredths of a second.

It was a welcome return to form for Franchitti, who has failed to finish either of the preceding races this season at St Petersburg and Barber Motorsports Park. With this event marking his 250th IndyCar Series / IRL race start, he will draw ahead of Sébastien Bourdais and Paul Tracy on the all-time winners’ list should he claim a 32nd career win in Sunday’s 80-lap race.

Will Power qualified third-fastest in his Penske entry – the team was the only outfit to get two cars into the ‘Fast Six’ phase, with teammate Hélio Castroneves managing sixth-fastest – which marked the first time since 2008 that he hasn’t qualified on the front-row at the Californian circuit.

Sharing the second row of the grid with him is Takuma Sato, who again showed outstanding qualifying pace in his new AJ Foyt Enterprises Honda entry.

One of Saturday’s star performers was Mike Conway, making his IndyCar Series return with a one-off outing with the Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan team. The Englishman qualified a sensational fifth-fastest, with a performance almost certain to guarantee him more appearances with the team this season.

Narrowly missing out on ‘Fast Six’ berths were the likes of St Petersburg racewinner James Hinchcliffe, along with Tony Kanaan, Charlie Kimball and EJ Viso, who completed the top-ten.

A few high-profile drivers will start well down the order after falling foul of the stewards’ rule book.

The most notable was perhaps Scott Dixon, who looked on course to sail into the second phase of qualifying before he spun in the middle of Turn 1 late in the session, blocking the circuit.

The next man on the scene was Oriol Servià, who had no option but to steer his D&R/Panther entry into the barriers to avoid hitting the New Zealander’s car. That triggered a red flag so marshals could mop up the mess, and will confine both to the back of the grid for Sunday’s race.

Also penalised was Marco Andretti, who was found guilty of impeding JR Hildebrand during the same session. The America had been on course to make the Top-12 phase of qualifying, but his penalty promoted oval-specialist Hildebrand in his place.

2013 IndyCar Series Grand Prix of Long Beach – Final Qualifying Results:

No.	Driver	Entry / Team	Result
1.	Dario Franchitti	Chip Ganassi Racing – Honda	1:07.2379	F6
2.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport – Chevrolet	1:07.2934	F6
3.	Will Power	Team Penske – Chevrolet	1:07.3987	F6
4.	Takuma Sato	AJ Foyt Enterprises – Honda	1:07.4472	F6
5.	Mike Conway	Rahal Letterman Lanigan – Honda	1:07.5994	F6
6.	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske – Chevrolet	1:07.9698	F6
7.	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport – Chevrolet	1:07.4358	T12
8.	Tony Kanaan	KV Racing Technology – Chevrolet	1:07.5891	T12
9.	Charlie Kimball	Chip Ganassi Racing – Honda	1:07.6306	T12
10.	E.J. Viso	Team Venzuela – Chevrolet	1:07.7209	T12
11.	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan – Honda	1:07.7799	T12
12.	JR Hildebrand	Panther Racing – Chevrolet	1:07.7902	T12
13.	James Jakes	Rahal Letterman Lanigan – Honda	1:07.9185	G1
14.	AJ Allmendinger	Team Penske – Chevrolet	1:08.2001	G2
15.	Sébastien Bourdais	Dragon Racing – Chevrolet	1:07.9823	G1
16.	Josef Newgarden	Sarah Fisher Hartman – Honda	1:08.2579	G2
17.	Simon Pagenaud	SPH – Honda09	1:07.9979	G1
18.	Oriol Servià	Panther / D&R – Chevrolet	1:08.2889	G2
19.	Tristan Vautier	SPH – Honda	1:08.1512	G1
20.	Simona de Silvestro	KV Racing Technology – Chevrolet	1:08.3173	G2
21.	Sebastián Saavedra	Dragon Racing – Chevrolet	1:08.4404	G1
22.	Alex Tagliani	Barracuda Racing – Honda	1:08.6431	G2
23.	Ana Beatriz	Dale Coyne Racing – Honda	1:08.9133	G1
24.	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing – Chevrolet	1:09.0318	G2
25.	Justin Wilson	Dale Coyne Racing – Honda	no time	G1
PEN.	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport – Chevrolet	1:09.4506	G2
PEN.	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing – Honda	1:09.6706	G2