It was a close battle but in the end, Penske's Ryan Briscoe was able to earn pole for the upcoming Indianapolis 500 by barely edging out Canadian James Hinchcliffe (Andretti Autosport) during Pole Day.

The Australian was able to maintain a total time of 2m38.9514s (226.464mph) for his four laps, putting him in front of Hinchcliffe by a mere 0.0023 seconds, therefore delivering the closest qualifying gap by time in the race's history.

The Andretti squad continued to show that it had been a dominant force all through the week by taking third and fourth with respectively Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti.

Briscoe's teammates Will Power and Helio Castroneves ended-up fifth and sixth.

Sarah Fisher Hartman rookie Josef Newgarden was quickest of the Honda-powered runners in seventh, while Ganassi aces Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti could only managed a distant 15th and 16th respectively.

Rubens Barrichello (KV) will start his first oval race in 10th, right in front of last year pole-sitter Alex Tagliani (Bryan Herta Autosport).

Several cars still need to make the field on Sunday's Bump Day after missing the top 24 on Saturday, including both Lotus-powered entries (HVM's Simona de Silvestro and Fan Force's Jean Alesi), Dragon's Sebastien Bourdais and Katherine Legge, AJ Foyt Racing's Mike Conway, and Sarah Fisher Hartman rookie Bryan Clauson.



Starting grid – Indy 500 (IndyCar)
Before Bump Day

First row

Ryan Briscoe (Dallara DW12-Chevy) - Penske - 226.484 kmh (364.491 mph)

James Hinchcliffe (Dallara DW12-Chevy) - Andretti - 226.481
Ryan Hunter-Reay (Dallara DW12-Chevy) - Andretti - 226.240


Second row
Marco Andretti (Dallara DW12-Chevy) - Andretti - 225.456
Will Power (Dallara DW12-Chevy) - Penske - 225.422

Helio Castroneves (Dallara DW12-Chevy) - Penske - 225.172


Third row
Josef Newgarden (Dallara DW12-Honda) - Fisher - 224.037
Tony Kanaan (Dallara DW12-Chevy) - KV - no time

EJ Viso (Dallara DW12-Chevy) - KV - no time

Fourth row

Rubens Barrichello (Dallara DW12-Chevy) - KV - 224.264
Alex Tagliani (Dallara DW12-Chevy) - Herta - 224.000
Graham Rahal (Dallara DW12-Honda) - Ganassi - 223.959

Fifth row

Ana Beatriz (Dallara DW12-Chevy) - Andretti - 223.920
Charlie Kimball (Dallara DW12-Honda) - Ganassi - 223.868

Scott Dixon (Dallara DW12-Honda) - Ganassi - 223.684


Sixth row
Dario Franchitti (Dallara DW12-Honda) - Ganassi - 223.582
James Jakes (Dallara DW12-Honda) - Coyne - 223.482

JR Hildebrand (Dallara DW12-Chevy) - Panther - 223.422


Seventh row

Takuma Sato (Dallara DW12-Honda) - Rahal - 223.392
Townsend Bell (Dallara DW12-Honda) - Schmidt - 223.134

Justin Wilson (Dallara DW12-Honda) - Coyne - 222.929


Eighth row

Michel Jourdain (Dallara DW12-Honda) - Rahal - 222.893
Simon Pagenaud (Dallara DW12-Honda) - Schmidt - 222.891

Sebastian Saavedra (Dallara DW12-Chevy) - Andretti - 222.811

Source: ItaliaRacing.net