The New Zealander led his group for most of the session, and became the only driver so far this weekend to dip below the 59s mark with his 58.9686s effort, which came just as James Jakes crashed and brought out the red flags.

Dario Franchitti, who will start today’s first race from pole, topped the first qualifying group with his 59.1905s and will line up alongside his team-mate on Sunday.

Helio Castroneves and Ryan Hunter-Reay will share the second row ahead of Will Power and EJ Viso.

Both Power and Sebastien Bourdais, who will start from the fourth row, could potentially have finished higher up, but Power glanced the barriers late in the second session and dragged an advertising banner off the wall.

He managed to shed it from his car, only for it to wrap itself around Bourdais’ front wing instead.

Jakes’s crash a moment later denied the Dragon team an opportunity to try and remove it.