Will Power Storms To Sonoma Pole Ahead Of Ryan Briscoe

Championship leader Will Power has asserted further authority over the IZOD IndyCar Series, after storming to his third successive pole at Sonoma ahead of Sunday’s GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma. Ryan Briscoe completed a Penske front row, with Sebastien Bourdais a highly competitive 3rd for Dragon Racing.

Will Power has enjoyed great success at Sonoma in recent years, and has started this weekend in similar fashion as the Australian driver continues to fight at the top of the Championship. Power’s nearest Championship rival, Ryan Hunter-Reay, could only manage 7th on the grid. However, Hunter-Reay remains positive despite his disappointing qualifying result, with the American driver having already won twice from 7th on the grid this season. The three remaining Championship contenders of Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon and James Hinchcliffe qualified 4th, 5th and 11th respectively.

“It’s good to back on the pole here in Sonoma in the Penske Verizon Chevy #12 car.” Explained Will Power, “It is important to start up front here and we are very happy to once again be on the front row, which is where we want to start. The wind really made the car unstable the last two days, so it will be interesting to see what the wind is like tomorrow and it will also be interesting because the race is an extra ten laps.”

Sebastien Bourdais enjoyed an exceedingly competitive qualifying session, as the former ChampCar Champion ended the session in 3rd, only +0.4788s off Power’s pole time. This is the Frenchman’s best qualifying result of the season, and couldn’t have come at a better time for the Dragon Racing outfit. Bourdais’ team-mate, Katherine Legge, makes her return to the track this weekend and will start the race from 21st on the grid.

With the track layout modified slightly to try and increase overtaking for this year’s race, the 2012 GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma has all the ingredients to be yet another thrilling addition to this highly entertaining season. As the season finale at Fontana draws ever closer, competitive results for the five Championship contenders is a necessity.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                   Time        Gap
 1.  Will Power           Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m17.2709s
 2.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m17.4347s  + 0.1638s
 3.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon Dallara-Chevy       1m17.7497s  + 0.4788s
 4.  Helio Castroneves    Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m18.1090s  + 0.8381s
 5.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m18.2126s  + 0.9417s
 6.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m18.3462s  + 1.0753s
 7.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m18.3355s  Round 2
 8.  Alex Tagliani        Herta Dallara-Honda        1m18.4168s  Round 2
 9.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt Dallara-Honda      1m18.4334s  Round 2
10.  Justin Wilson        Coyne Dallara-Honda        1m18.6258s  Round 2
11.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m18.7885s  Round 2
12.  Rubens Barrichello   KV Dallara-Chevy           1m18.9788s  Round 2
13.  Sebastian Saavedra   AFS/Andretti Dallara-Chevy 1m18.8918s  Group 1
14.  Marco Andretti       Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m18.8925s  Group 2
15.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m18.8981s  Group 1
16.  Mike Conway          Foyt Dallara-Honda         1m18.9048s  Group 2
17.  JR Hildebrand        Panther Dallara-Chevy      1m19.0931s  Group 1
18.  Tony Kanaan          KV Dallara-Chevy           1m18.9475s  Group 2
19.  EJ Viso              KV Dallara-Chevy           1m19.3953s  Group 1
20.  Oriol Servia         Panther/DRR Dallara-Chevy  1m18.9672s  Group 2
21.  Katherine Legge      Dragon Dallara-Chevy       1m19.6414s  Group 1
22.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m19.0262s  Group 2
23.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher Dallara-Honda       1m19.7468s  Group 1
24.  Takuma Sato          Rahal Dallara-Honda        1m19.2821s  Group 2
25.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM Dallara-Lotus          1m20.2295s  Group 1
26.  James Jakes          Coyne Dallara-Honda        1m19.5152s  Group 2
27.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter Dallara-Chevy    1m19.6837s  Group 2

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