Briscoe becomes first Australian to take Indy 500 pole

Ryan Briscoe has secured pole position for the Indianapolis 500, becoming the first Australian to do so.

In one of the closest sessions in history, the Team Penske driver set a 226.484mph average around the Brickyard, with Canadian James Hinchcliffe only 0.003mph off Briscoe’s speed.

Briscoe described the pole as “huge.”

“This is huge man, this is unbelievable,” Briscoe said.

“Those four laps were so good and so consistent. Getting the pole at Indy is huge. It feels good to get my first one here.”

Briscoe set a warm-up time of 223.506mph before launching into a fast 226.621mph on his first lap. While he gradually went slower on each of his next three laps, he says that his last lap was the difference.

“Lap 4 won me this pole,” Briscoe said.

“I’m proud of this team, this is a big one to win. Those four laps of Hinchtown’s it was nervous time for sure. When we saw that he didn’t get us, it was a great relief.”

Ryan Hunter-Reay will join Briscoe and Hinchcliffe on the front row of the grid.

Marco Andretti secured fourth place from Briscoe’s Australian team-mate Will Power. The third Team Penske car of Helio Castroneves will start from sixth.

Today’s qualifying set the grid for the top 24 places, with Bump Day to be held tomorrow.

The Indianapolis 500 will be held next Sunday.

Check out the video of Briscoe’s pole lap

Here is what the top 3 had to say

Qualifying

Pos	Driver	Average MPH
1	Ryan Briscoe	226.484
2	James Hinchcliffe	226.481
3	Ryan Hunter-Reay	226.240
4	Marco Andretti	225.456
5	Will Power	225.422
6	Helio Castroneves	225.172
7	Josef Newgarden	224.037
8	Tony Kanaan	224.751
9	EJ Viso	224.422
10	Rubens Barrichello	224.264
11	Alex Tagliani	224.000
12	Graham Rahal	223.959
13	Ana Beatriz	223.920
14	Charlie Kimball	223.868
15	Scott Dixon	223.684
16	Dario Franchitti	223.582
17	James Jakes	223.482
18	JR Hildebrand	223.422
19	Takuma Sato	223.392
20	Townsend Bell	223.134
21	Justin Wilson	222.929
22	Michel Jourdain	222.893
23	Simon Pagenaud	222.891
24	Sebastian Saavedra	222.811