» IndyCars: Power pips Hinchcliffe to pole

Will Power has won pole position for Sunday’s IndyCar Grand Prix of Alabama by a scant 0.02 seconds from James Hinchcliffe to close out a highly competitive qualifying session at the Barber Motorsport Park circuit.

The Australian clocked a 1:08.312 lap on his first flying lap in his Penske, while his Andretti Autosport rival came within a whisker of stealing top spot on his reply lap. But with a number of the ‘Fast Six’ qualifiers electing to save tyre sets for the race, Power’s time ultimately proved unbeatable.

Friday fast man Ryan Hunter-Reay wound up third-fastest in the second of the four Andretti entries to qualify inside the top-nine. He, Hinchcliffe and Josef Newgarden – who qualified fourth-fastest in his Sarah Fisher Hartmann entry – will resume hostilities once again, following Hunter-Reay’s ill-timed dive on Newgarden a fortnight ago at Long Beach, which took out Hinchcliffe as well.

Scott Dixon and Hélio Castroneves rounded out the top-six qualifiers for Chip Ganassi and Penske respectively, with the latter throwing away his claim at pole position by dropping a wheel into the dirt on his flying lap.

Qualifying also produced its fair share of upset performances. Outside of Dixon’s top-six effort, the Chip Ganassi stable struggled, with neither Charlie Kimball, Ryan Briscoe or Tony Kanaan able to progress beyond the first group stages.

The same fate befell Long Beach winner Mike Conway, who flat-spotted his tyres on his opening run and subsequently had his car’s handling disintegrate.

2014 IndyCar Series Grand Prix of Alabama – Qualifying:

	‘Fast Six’ Session	Team / Entry	Time
1.	Will Power	Team Penske Chevrolet	1:08.3120
2.	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport Honda	+ 0.0289
3.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport Honda	+ 0.1144
4.	Josef Newgarden	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda	+ 0.1582
5.	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet	+ 0.2031
6.	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske Chevrolet	+ 0.3138
	‘Round 2’ Session	Team / Entry	Time
7.	Carlos Muñoz	Andretti Autosport Honda	1:08.6388
8.	Juan Pablo Montoya	Team Penske Chevrolet	1:08.6453
9.	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport Honda	1:08.6634
10.	Simon Pagenaud	Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports Honda	1:08.8682
11.	Mikhail Aleshin	Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports Honda	1:09.1708
12.	Sébastien Bourdais	KV Racing Technology Honda	no time
	Group Sessions	Team / Entry	Time
13.	Sebastián Saavedra	KV Racing Technology / AFS Racing Honda	1:08.9674
14.	Takuma Sato	A.J. Foyt Enterprises Honda	1:09.1451
15.	Carlos Huertas	Dale Coyne Racing Honda	1:09.0267
16.	Justin Wilson	Dale Coyne Racing Honda	1:09.2018
17.	Charlie Kimball	Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet	1:09.1941
18.	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda	1:09.2228
19.	Oriol Servià	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda	1:09.2935
20.	Ryan Briscoe	Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet	1:09.2722
21.	Mike Conway	Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet	1:09.8580
22.	Jack Hawksworth	Bryan Herta Autosport Honda	1:09.4201
23.	Tony Kanaan	Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet	1:09.5829