Alex Tagliani will start seventh as the leading driver not to make it through to the Firestone Fast Six, and the way the circuit improved was shown by the fact that the Conquest Racing ace was some six second away from pole. However the Canadian racer admitted he had hoped for more.

"I think we showed that Conquest Racing is a very competitive team,” he said. “I think we deserved a lot better than P7, we had a car that could easily be in the top four this afternoon. We should have been in the top six in qualifying. Our position in the pits, being at the end of pit lane, hurt us quite a bit. It made qualifying pretty difficult because we were quick, but other guys in front of us were able to get out of the pit earlier and were able to complete one extra lap.

“Throughout qualifying, we were consistently at the top and looking good to move on to Segment 3 but unfortunately guys that did extra laps got us. The team has worked really hard and done a great job. We're confident for the race tomorrow. We feel that we have a car that can compete with the guys in front of us. Starting seventh is not a bad spot, we just have to stay out of trouble and do our best.”

Tony Kanaan was eighth, with Justin Wilson and Ernesto Viso rounding out the top ten. Further back, Dan Wheldon will start his first race with Panther from 18th on the grid while Danica Patrick and AJ Foyt will both start from the back of the grid after incidents in the first phase of qualifying – where drivers were split into two groups with the top six advancing.

For qualifying times, CLICK HERE.