After rains washed out the opening day of practice, the IZOD IndyCar Series drivers/teams finally got to know the new Edmonton Indy course yesterday with practice sessions and qualifying. When the dust settled, it was Takuma Sato who bagged his second career IndyCar pole with a lap of 78.5165 seconds in the Firestone Fast Six — enough to knock Team Penske’s Will Power down to P2 and out of pole position. Power had previously won the last five road/street course poles.
One week after Japan’s national women’s soccer squad claimed the World Cup in Germany, Sato will try to win one of his own for his homeland, which is still rebuilding after suffering through a devastating earthquake and tsunami. He and Power will hold the front row for today’s race, with defending Edmonton champ Scott Dixon and defending series champ Dario Franchitti making an all-Ganassi Row 2. E.J. Viso, Sato’s teammate at KV-Lotus, will hold the inside of Row 3 alongside Ryan Briscoe of Team Penske.
As for the Canadian contingent, James Hinchcliffe was P1 in the first practice session on Saturday but couldn’t quite live up to that in quals. However, his starting position of 10th is tops amongst the Maple Leaf Brigade, which includes Quebec’s Alex Tagliani (17th starting position) and Ontario’s Paul Tracy (25th starting position).
You can catch today’s Edmonton Indy at 2 pm ET on Versus.
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IZOD IndyCar Series — EDMONTON INDY
Starting Grid
Position/(car number)/Driver/Team/Time/(Speed)
1. (5) Takuma Sato, KV-Lotus, 01:18.5165 (101.971)
2. (12) Will Power, Penske, 01:18.5674 (101.905)
3. (9) Scott Dixon, Ganassi, 01:18.6442 (101.805)
4. (10) Dario Franchitti, Ganassi, 01:18.6628 (101.781)
5. (59) EJ Viso, KV-Lotus, 01:18.7383 (101.684)
6. (6) Ryan Briscoe, Penske, 01:19.0267 (101.313)
7. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti, 01:18.6678 (101.775)
8. (2) Oriol Servia, Newman-Haas, 01:18.7142 (101.715)
9. (3) Helio Castroneves, Penske, 01:18.7669 (101.647)
10. (06) James Hinchcliffe, Newman-Haas, 01:18.9323 (101.434)
11. (82) Tony Kanaan, KV-Lotus, 01:19.0190 (101.322)
12. (19) Sebastien Bourdais, Coyne, 01:19.3802 (100.861)
13. (38) Graham Rahal, Ganassi 01:19.0682 (101.259)
14. (14) Vitor Meira, Foyt, 01:18.9781 (101.375)
15. (22) Justin Wilson, Dreyer/Reinbold, 01:19.0732 (101.253)
16. (78) Simona de Silvestro, HVM, 01:19.2084 (101.080)
17. (77) Alex Tagliani, Schmidt, 01:19.1329 (101.177)
18. (18) James Jakes, Coyne, 01:19.3533 (100.896)
19. (26) Marco Andretti, Andretti, 01:19.6204 (100.557)
20. (27) Mike Conway, Andretti, 01:19.4007 (100.835)
21. (83) Charlie Kimball, Ganassi, 01:20.0348 (100.036)
22. (7) Danica Patrick, Andretti, 01:19.4713 (100.746)
23. (24) Ana Beatriz, Dreyer/Reinbold, 01:20.3224 (99.678)
24. (4) JR Hildebrand, Panther, 01:19.5237 (100.679)
25. (8) Paul Tracy, Dragon, 01:20.4836 (99.479)
26. (34) Sebastian Saavedra, Conquest, 01:19.7200 (100.432)
