Briscoe, Franchitti 1-2 at Indy

INDIANAPOLIS — Ryan Briscoe took the provisional pole position for the Indianapolis 500 in early qualifying on Saturday.

The fastest driver in practice this week showed the way on a cool, windy afternoon with a four-lap average of 224.131 mph.

With wind gusts up to 25 mph making the 2.5-mile Brickyard oval more treacherous than normal, many of the teams were trying to outguess the gusts and few of the early qualifiers were happy with their speeds.

Dario Franchitti, the 2007 Indy winner, waited until the first flurry of qualifiers had finished and the track was opened for practice before he made a qualifying attempt. The guessing game worked well enough that the Scot bumped Briscoe’s Penske Racing teammate Helio Castroneves out of second place on the tentative grid.

Franchitti’s 224.010 was just good enough to relegate Castroneves, a two-time Indy pole and race winner, to the outside of the three-car front row with his 223.949 run.

Scott Dixon, who won last year’s 500 from the pole, and 2005 pole winner Tony Kanaan also waited for a while after the six-hour qualifying session began at noon. Dixon, Franchitti’s Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, took the fourth spot at 223.781, moving 20-year-old Graham Rahal (223.266) to the middle of the second row.

“It was pretty good, but I had to lift on the last lap when I got hit by a big gust of wind,” Dixon said. “It’s just not real good out there.”

Kanaan was considerably slower at 222.742, good for the middle of the third row in the tentative lineup for the May 24 race.

Eleven of the 33 starting positions for the 500 were up for grabs on the first of four days of time trials. Eleven drivers completed qualifying runs in the first hour, but Justin Wilson’s 220.934 mph run was disqualified because of an unapproved weight location.

But the unique qualifying format at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway allows each of the entries up to three completed attempts on each of the four days of time trials leading up to the 500.

Even Briscoe, who was pleased with his run, was thinking he might have to do it again later.

“That’s good, that’s solid. It’s a good start,” the Australian said. “I think, having gone reasonably early, it gives us a chance to get through tech early and get the car back and look at the setup and everything and see what we can do to go faster if we need to.”

Danica Patrick, who expected to have a shot at a spot on the front row, was confused and disappointed after a four-lap run at 221.785 that left her 10th among the early qualifiers.

“I’ve never been this far off at Indy, never,” she said. “It really just was slow. … We’re going to have to think about it and be ready to go back out.”

Many of the 32 drivers who have been on the track since practice began on Wednesday opted to wait until later in the day, hoping the wind dies down, with only 12 qualifying attempts in the first three hours of the session.

Will Power, the third Penske driver, was sixth at 223.028, followed by Marco Andretti at 222.789. Mario Moraes at 222.470 was ninth and Hideki Mutoh at 221.680 was 11th.

Raphael Matos (221.527) and Ed Carpenter (221.272) were the first two drivers bumped out of the top 11.

“That’s fine for the first run,” Power said. “If we have a shot at the front row, (the team) may decide to send me out again. It’s up to them.”

Andretti, the grandson of Indy legend and 1969 race winner Mario Andretti and son of longtime racing star Michael Andretti, said, “We were debating a wave-off, but we decided to just use it as a practice run and get one in the bank.

“If the wind keeps up, we might have to settle. I just hope it’s good enough for the top 11.”

Indy rookie Robert Doornbos crashed in the morning practice, his second wreck in two days, and 2005 Indy winner Dan Wheldon crashed during afternoon practice. Neither was injured.