Tomas Scheckter, now on the bubble following Mutoh's successful effort, decided to try and improve his lot, but appeared to be in danger of actually making it worse as he struggled to match his earlier speed. Fortunately for the South African, his pace picked up in the closing laps of his run, and he resecured eleventh position.
“I'm just so happy," Scheckter admitted, "To be honest, it feels like I've got the pole just to survive that top eleven. We just struggled and struggled. Every time that car went out, it went a bit slower and slower - then we saw people behind us coming. On that lap, I was completely sideways in Turn Three, and I thought I was going the same way as Ryan [Hunter-Reay]. The temperature cooled down and was good, but the problem was the wind - even going down the straight in the car, it would shove left and right, moving all about. Really, you are sometimes dictated by where the wind goes.”
With time ticking down, few others ventured out, deciding that a place in the front four rows was unlikely and keeping their powder dry for a shot at places 12-22 on Sunday.
"We tried everything we could, but there's days that you realise that it's better to be brave than to be stupid," Castroneves summed up, "We got to a point where there's not much we could do and we realised the Ganassi guys were better. The good news is that this is just the pole position and the race is a big thing - and we're going to work next week for that. My second [Indy 500] win was from 13th, and I'm glad that we were, at least, up there."
