Scott Dixon has seized pole position for Sunday’s IndyCar encounter at Motegi. The New Zealander will start alongside fellow Australasian and title contender Will Power, with championship leader Dario Franchitti only ninth for Chip Ganassi.
For 2011, IndyCar is using the Motegi street course for the first time after the banked oval was damaged by the 9.0 magnitude earthquake which shook Japan in March. Beaten by 23 thousandths of a second, the result marks Power’s failure to claim pole on a road course for only the second time this season.
Moving into the Fast Six period, Graham Rahal was first to set the pace before falling back, although the leading American is still third on the grid in Japan. After joining the track later than his opponents, Power split the Ganassi duo but could still not get close enough to Dixon’s lap time.
Behind, Ryan Briscoe was fourth in the second Penske as James Hinchcliffe – who demonstrated promising pace to top the final practice session this morning – qualifying a strong fifth. Helio Castroneves was next up, having struggled throughout most of practice, to confirm a trio of Penskes in the top six.
Completing the top ten, Charlie Kimball and Marco Andretti sandwiched Britons James Jakes and the aforementioned Franchitti, with home Japanese representatives Takuma Sato and Hideki Mutoh in 11th and 22nd places for KV Racing and Sam Schmidt Motorsports, respectively. There was disappointment for Sébastien Bourdais; making a mistake on his final lap, the Frenchman was knocked out of the top 12 by Dale Coyne team-mate Jakes and will start 14th on Sunday.
A number of familiar faces are towards the back of the grid, with Oriol Servia dropping from second position in final practice to 16th in qualifying as Ryan Hunter-Reay, Mike Conway, Danica Patrick, Tony Kanaan and Simona de Silvestro struggled their individual ways to 17th, 20th, 23rd, 25th and 26th.
Sunday morning’s warm-up session begins at 8am local time (BST +7)
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  S. Dixon | Chip Ganassi | 01:38.391 | |
| 2. | W. Power | Penske | 01:38.414 | |
| 3. | G. Rahal | Chip Ganassi | 01:38.594 | |
| 4. | R. Briscoe | Penske | 01:38.708 | |
| 5. | J. Hinchcliffe | Newman/Haas | 01:38.922 | |
| 6. | H. Castroneves | Penske | 01:38.974 | |
| 7. | C. Kimball | Chip Ganassi | 01:38.791 | |
| 8. | J. Jakes | Dale Coyne | 01:38.819 | |
| 9. | D. Franchitti | Chip Ganassi | 01:38.873 | |
| 10. | M. Andretti | Andretti | 01:38.905 | |
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