Ed Carpenter claimed his first ever IndyCar pole position in a qualifying session full of surprises at Kentucky Speedway.

Without a full-time seat for 2010, Carpenter is making only his third appearance of the season at Kentucky in a joint Panther/Vision Racing entry. Having battled in the top five on his return to the series at Chicagoland last week, and come within inches of winning at Kentucky last year, Carpenter put himself in an ideal position to clinch a first career win tomorrow with a pole run averaging 217.933mph over the new two-lap format.

The Panther team looks extremely strong going into Saturday night's race, with Carpenter's team-mate Dan Wheldon following up his Chicagoland podium finish with third on the grid today.

Apart from Ganassi's Scott Dixon, who joins Wheldon on row two, all of Power's usual rivals were down the order - and puzzled by their lack of speed.

His Penske team-mates Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe were only eighth and ninth, while title threat Franchitti was back in 11th.

Andretti Autosport fared even worse - Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick were unhappy with 15th and 17th places, and Tony Kanaan nearly understeered in the Turn 1 wall and ended up back in 26th, just ahead of team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay, who spun into the Turn 2 wall on his run.

That gave some underdogs a chance to impress, with Hideki Mutoh qualifying fifth for Newman/Haas and Mario Moraes seventh for KV Racing.

But it was Conquest Racing that, after Carpenter, had most to celebrate, as rookie Bertrand Baguette qualified a surprise, career-best sixth and his new team-mate Tomas Scheckter claimed 10th.

Returnee Paul Tracy could not star on his second appearance with Dreyer & Reinbold though, the former Champ Car champion bemused by his car's poor pace as he took 23rd. Graham Rahal's return to Sarah Fisher Racing did not start well either - he bemoaned a severe straightline speed deficit as he struggled to 25th.

Pos  Driver               Team               Speed
 1.  Ed Carpenter         Panther/Vision     217.933mph
 2.  Will Power           Penske             217.829mph
 3.  Dan Wheldon          Panther            217.700mph
 4.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            217.533mph
 5.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas        217.374mph
 6.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest           216.988mph
 7.  Mario Moraes         KV                 216.879mph
 8.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             216.857mph
 9.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             216.600mph
10.  Tomas Scheckter      Conquest           216.589mph
11.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            216.533mph
12.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               216.434mph
13.  Alex Tagliani        FAZZT              216.391mph
14.  Takuma Sato          KV                 216.265mph
15.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           216.173mph
16.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  215.944mph
17.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           215.820mph
18.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         215.272mph
19.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                215.003mph
20.  Raphael Matos        De Ferran Dragon   214.948mph
21.  Sarah Fisher         Sarah Fisher       214.813mph
22.  EJ Viso              KV                 214.595mph
23.  Paul Tracy           Dreyer & Reinbold  214.270mph
24.  Milka Duno           Dale Coyne         213.343mph
25.  Graham Rahal         Sarah Fisher       212.364mph
26.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti           210.831mph
27.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti

Casey Stoner says he remains fully committed to solving Ducati's current problems even though he will leave the team at the end of 2010, and is not paying any attention to future employer Honda's strong form.

But Stoner, who was only eighth fastest in today's session, said his 2011 team's performance was of no consolation whatsoever amid Ducati's issues.

"I have to worry about us at the moment," said Stoner. "I don't give a crap about what anybody else is doing at the moment.

"At the moment, we're struggling with our bike and we need to concentrate. I honestly don't care if the Yamahas are going well, if the Kawasakis were here and they were doing well. At the moment, we're not.

"At the moment, we are the slowest bike out there. There are four manufacturers and many times we are the most difficult one.

"So we have to pick up our game, and I know we can do a much better job than what we're doing."

The former world champion said he still did not feel the team had found how to extract the potential from the Ducati GP10.

"It's just difficult to find the solution that makes this bike work," said Stoner. "We've been able to get a great setting for a lot of races, but not a fantastic one, so we just need to keep working."

Ducati has been persisting with a new fork specification at Misano this weekend, and Stoner reckons the best policy is to continue making bold changes to the bike.

"At the moment I've got not a lot to gain and not a lot to lose," said the Australian, who is fourth in the championship, 132 points behind leader Jorge Lorenzo, at present.

"We're just going to keep trying different things and see if we can come up with a solution, because I'm sick of finishing third, being on the podium but on the last step and too far away from the lead, so we have to try something big.

"Unfortunately when you try something big, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll arrive at the best setting first time. We have to keep trying a lot of crap settings before we come across a good one."

Moto2 manufacturer Suter has revealed a chassis designed for the 2012 MotoGP regulations.

Suter says its design could be adapted to either format, and that a complete bike would be available for between 350,000 and 600,000 euro.

The chassis is presently fitted with a BMW S 1000 RR engine, which has similar dimensions to the Moto2 Honda. BMW, which currently competes in World Superbikes, has been linked to a MotoGP move for 2012, but has no official involvement in Suter's project.

Carmelo Morales will conduct initial development tests, although Suter is also in talks with other riders. The 32-year-old Spaniard is a double CEV Formula Extreme champion and ran in the top 10 on a Moto2 one-off at Catalunya earlier this year, although his race famously ended in a ferocious crash on the run to the finish line, from which Morales incredibly emerged unhurt apart from bruising.

Laurens Vanthoor took his first pole position in the Formula 3 Euro Series at Brands Hatch on Friday, leading a 1-2-3 for the Signature-Volkswagen team.

Championship leader Edoardo Mortara, who had taken pole position in the previous four qualifying sessions this year, had to settle for third behind his two less experienced team-mates.

A Signature walkover had not seemed likely in the first part of the session, when ART's Valtteri Bottas was setting the pace.

With 11 minutes gone the Finn was on a lap that was then on course to extend his advantage at the front, but he crashed at McLaren, ending his participation for the day.

Bottas, who had been fastest in free practice this morning, was then a spectator as his rivals tried to beat his time. He was eventually pushed back to fifth when Prema's Daniel Juncadella joined the Signature drivers in getting ahead of him.

The third row of the grid will be an all-ART affair. Alexander Sims had another difficult qualifying session, and he could not better the early lap from Bottas, leaving him sixth.

The third ART car was also in the wars, as Jim Pla caused a red flag when he had a dramatic crash at Paddock Hill Bend. The Frenchman's car went into the gravel trap backwards, and it then rolled as it dug in to the run-off area.

After a lengthy extrication process, Pla was taken to the medical centre for a check-up. He was reported to have suffered no serious injuries.

The session restarted with just two minutes remaining, but that was not long enough to enable anybody at the front to better their times.

Pos  Driver                  Team       Car  Time     Gap
 1.  Laurens Vanthoor        Signature  D/V  40.696s
 2.  Marco Wittmann          Signature  D/V  40.727s  + 0.031s
 3.  Edoardo Mortara         Signature  D/V  40.804s  + 0.108s
 4.  Daniel Juncadella       Prema      D/M  40.839s  + 0.143s
 5.  Valtteri Bottas         ART        D/M  40.873s  + 0.177s
 6.  Alexander Sims          ART        D/M  40.937s  + 0.241s
 7.  Matias Laine            Motopark   D/V  40.952s  + 0.256s
 8.  Carlos Munoz            Mucke      D/M  41.030s  + 0.334s
 9.  Roberto Merhi           Mucke      D/M  41.061s  + 0.365s
10.  Mika Maki               Motopark   D/V  41.072s  + 0.376s
11.  Jim Pla                 ART        D/M  41.112s  + 0.416s
12.  Nicolas Marroc          Prema      D/M  41.192s  + 0.496s
13.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Motopark   D/V  41.194s  + 0.498s

Jeff Smith will make his British Touring Car Championship debut at Knockhill this weekend.

Smith, 44, tested the Vectra at Rockingham recently and will partner the team's regular driver James Nash.

Tech 1 Racing's Daniel Ricciardo topped the second Formula Renault 3.5 free practice session at Hockenheim on Friday, and in doing so claimed the fastest time of the day.

Entering the meeting with an 11-point championship lead over Ricciardo, Carlin's Mikhail Aleshin ended the afternoon third fastest on 1m28.019s.

Magny-Cours winner Nathanael Berthon (Draco) briefly led the session before being bumped down to fourth spot. Pons Racing's Ferrari Academy driver Daniel Zampieri recovered from a disappointing morning session, in which could only manage 15th fastest, to claim fifth place.

Fortec's Jon Lancaster completed the top six. Fellow Briton Greg Mansell, fresh from supporting his father Nigel's round Britain cycle ride for UK Youth, spent much of the session in third. He would eventually slip to 10th, but fared better than Comtec team-mate Stefano Coletti whose afternoon was disrupted following an off-track incident.

This morning's pacesetter Esteban Guerrieri could only manage 15th fastest for ISR.

Pos  Driver             Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Daniel Ricciardo   Tech 1           1m27.758s
 2.  Albert Costa       Epsilon Euskadi  1m27.957s  + 0.199s
 3.  Mikhail Aleshin    Carlin           1m28.019s  + 0.261s
 4.  Nathanael Berthon  Draco            1m28.265s  + 0.507s
 5.  Daniel Zampieri    Pons             1m28.277s  + 0.519s
 6.  Jon Lancaster      Fortec           1m28.324s  + 0.566s
 7.  Walter Grubmuller  P1               1m28.439s  + 0.681s
 8.  Keisuke Kunimoto   Epsilon Euskadi  1m28.485s  + 0.727s
 9.  Federico Leo       Pons             1m28.624s  + 0.866s
10.  Greg Mansell       Comtec           1m28.643s  + 0.885s
11.  Jean Eric Vergne   Tech 1           1m28.677s  + 0.919s
12.  Victor Garcia      KMP              1m28.803s  + 1.045s
13.  Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP              1m28.815s  + 1.057s
14.  Filip Salaquarda   ISR              1m28.918s  + 1.160s
15.  Esteban Guerrieri  ISR              1m28.923s  + 1.165s
16.  Jake Rosenzweig    Carlin           1m28.953s  + 1.195s
17.  Nelson Panciatici  Junior Lotus     1m29.002s  + 1.244s
18.  Jan Charouz        P1               1m29.010s  + 1.252s
19.  Julian Leal        Draco            1m29.010s  + 1.252s
20.  Sten Pentus        Fortec           1m29.318s  + 1.560s
21.  Bruno Mendez       FHV Interwetten  1m29.353s  + 1.595s
22.  Stefano Coletti    Comtec           1m29.399s  + 1.641s
23.  Daniil Move        Junior Lotus     1m29.750s  + 1.992s
24.  Sergio Canamasas   FHV Interwetten

Mattias Ekstrom led an Audi lockout of the top five places in the first DTM free practice session of the weekend at Brands Hatch.

The two Abt Sportsline drivers moved to the top of the timesheets during a flurry of activity in the middle of the session, with most of the headline times coming from Audis.

The manufacturer will be keen to reverse its recent poor form in relation to Mercedes this weekend, which might explain the bigger push from A4 drivers in comparison to their C-class rivals. Ekstrom also completed the most laps of anyone in the 90-minute session.

The 2008-spec Audis of Miguel Molina, Alexandre Premat and Markus Winkelhock completed the top five. Molina and Premat were the only drivers to make a significant improvement in the final few moments of the session, as most of the field refrained from pushing any harder at the end.

Gary Paffett was the top Mercedes runner in sixth. The HWA Mercedes team had a solid day, with Paul di Resta (seventh) and championship leader Bruno Spengler (ninth) close to Paffett's time.

Spengler was sandwiched by two more Audis, as Oliver Jarvis and Mike Rockenfeller also made the top 10.

As expected, it was a difficult start to the weekend for those in 2008-spec Mercedes. Susie Stoddart was the fastest of the older Mercedes in 11th, while the other four drivers in the same cars filled places 14-17.

Pos  Driver             Car       Time     Gap
 1.  Mattias Ekstrom    Audi      42.019s
 2.  Timo Scheider      Audi      42.080s  + 0.061s
 3.  Miguel Molina      Audi      42.153s  + 0.134s
 4.  Alexandre Premat   Audi      42.158s  + 0.139s
 5.  Markus Winkelhock  Audi      42.196s  + 0.177s
 6.  Gary Paffett       Mercedes  42.217s  + 0.198s
 7.  Paul di Resta      Mercedes  42.268s  + 0.249s
 8.  Oliver Jarvis      Audi      42.306s  + 0.287s
 9.  Bruno Spengler     Mercedes  42.318s  + 0.299s
10.  Mike Rockenfeller  Audi      42.339s  + 0.320s
11.  Susie Stoddart     Mercedes  42.414s  + 0.395s
12.  Martin Tomczyk     Audi      42.442s  + 0.423s
13.  Ralf Schumacher    Mercedes  42.446s  + 0.427s
14.  Jamie Green        Mercedes  42.489s  + 0.470s
15.  Maro Engel         Mercedes  42.525s  + 0.506s
16.  David Coulthard    Mercedes  42.650s  + 0.631s
17.  Cong Fu Cheng      Mercedes  42.723s  + 0.704s
18.  Katherine Legge    Audi      42.724s  + 0.705s

Dario Franchitti was quickest in a rain-interrupted IndyCar practice session at Kentucky Speedway.

The organisers hoped to fit in at least 15 more minutes of running when the track finally went green again, but had to concede defeat after more rain eight minutes later.

During that final brief spell of track action, Ganassi driver Franchitti put in a 24.4955s lap to usurp Penske's Helio Castroneves, who had led the way up to then.

Scott Dixon was third in Ganassi's second car, with Dan Wheldon showing strong form for Panther in fourth, a week after his near-victory at Chicagoland.

Penske's Ryan Briscoe and Andretti Autosport's Tony Kanaan completed the top six, while championship leader Will Power (Penske) was back in 10th.

Seventh place was a promising result for Mario Moraes and KV Racing, but the leading underdog of the session was AJ Foyt Racing's Vitor Meira - who took eighth.

The rain interruptions hampered preparations for the drivers reacclimatising to different teams this weekend. Paul Tracy and Graham Rahal were only 25th and 26th on their returns to Dreyer & Reinbold and Sarah Fisher Racing respectively.

Qualifying for Saturday night's race is due to take place in just under two hours' time, with a 20 per cent chance of rain predicted for this afternoon.

Pos  Driver               Team               Time      Gap
 1.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            24.4955s
 2.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             24.5183s  + 0.0228s
 3.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            24.5482s  + 0.0527s
 4.  Dan Wheldon          Panther            24.5494s  + 0.0539s
 5.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             24.5882s  + 0.0927s
 6.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti           24.6060s  + 0.1105s
 7.  Mario Moraes         KV                 24.6061s  + 0.1106s
 8.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               24.6179s  + 0.1224s
 9.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           24.6265s  + 0.1310s
10.  Will Power           Penske             24.6485s  + 0.1530s
11.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           24.6507s  + 0.1552s
12.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           24.6544s  + 0.1589s
13.  Ed Carpenter         Panther/Vision     24.6684s  + 0.1729s
14.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         24.6842s  + 0.1887s
15.  Takuma Sato          KV                 24.6868s  + 0.1913s
16.  Raphael Matos        De Ferran Dragon   24.7167s  + 0.2212s
17.  Tomas Scheckter      Conquest           24.7242s  + 0.2287s
18.  Alex Tagliani        FAZZT              24.7301s  + 0.2346s
19.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest           24.7681s  + 0.2726s
20.  Sarah Fisher         Sarah Fisher       24.7960s  + 0.3005s
21.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  24.8246s  + 0.3291s
22.  EJ Viso              KV                 24.8738s  + 0.3783s
23.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                24.9016s  + 0.4061s
24.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas        24.9328s  + 0.4373s
25.  Paul Tracy           Dreyer & Reinbold  24.9797s  + 0.4842s
26.  Graham Rahal         Sarah Fisher       25.0829s  + 0.5874s
27.  Milka Duno           Dale Coyne         25.3171s  + 0.8216s

Casey Stoner put his lack of speed in Friday practice at Misano down to having missed the event in 2009.

He believes set-up data from that race would have helped him get on the pace today, when he ended the practice hour only eighth.

"That was a difficult session for us, basically because we didn't have any information from last year because I didn't race here," said Stoner.

"The characteristics of the current engine are very different to the one we used in 2008 so it requires a completely different gearbox set-up and obviously that affects a lot of different things.

"We took a bit of a shot in the dark with what we thought would work but unfortunately it wasn't quite right and we had to spend a lot of time today making adjustments.

"Hopefully the data we gathered can give us a much better idea of where to start from tomorrow and I'm sure we can quickly close the gap to the guys at the top."

Stoner's team-mate Nicky Hayden was one place ahead of him, having also had a tough Friday.

"That wasn't the smoothest session we ever had and I'm losing a lot on T3," said Hayden. "I hoped to start out a bit closer to the top than that. We need to look for some tenths, maybe by finding some better turning in the front and also adjusting the gearbox a bit better.

"To be honest it's not one big area we have to improve very much but small improvements in a few different areas.

"We also had a little issue with the fairing, which came a bit loose and my leathers got caught on it so I had to get back to the pit. We were trying something and after that I had basically one chance to make a good lap so we are not sure it is the right direction, which was a bit of a bummer."

Sergei Afanasiev claimed his maiden Formula 2 pole position at Oschersleben on Friday afternoon.

He saw off the challenge of Kazim Vasiliauskas as the pair traded the top spot during their new-tyre runs in the second half of the session.

Afanasiev finished just under a tenth clear at the top, with Vasiliauskas another two tenths ahead of anyone else.

"The tyres were past their best but it was okay because the track was quite cold," said Afanasiev. "I was going really fast when I caught Stoneman so I decided to drop back and do my own laps.... Boom, boom, finito. On this circuit it's very difficult to overtake so it's important to get a good qualifying.

"If you have followed this year you know that my starting is not my best thing, so hopefully tomorrow I will do my best."

The second row of the grid for Saturday's race will be filled by Nicola de Marco and Benjamin Bailly - the pair split by only a couple of hundredths in qualifying.

Championship protagonist Dean Stoneman will start only fifth, but still three places ahead of points leader Jolyon Palmer. Will Bratt and Jack Clarke lie between the pair.

Philipp Eng and Mihai Marinescu round out the top 10, while F2 newcomer Johannes Theobald ended up 17th.

Pos  Driver              Time       Gap
 1.  Sergei Afanasiev    1m20.376s
 2.  Kazim Vasiliauskas  1m20.463s  + 0.087s
 3.  Nicola de Marco     1m20.672s  + 0.296s
 4.  Benjamin Bailly     1m20.698s  + 0.322s
 5.  Dean Stoneman       1m20.784s  + 0.408s
 6.  Will Bratt          1m20.838s  + 0.462s
 7.  Jack Clarke         1m20.871s  + 0.495s
 8.  Jolyon Palmer       1m20.916s  + 0.540s
 9.  Philipp Eng         1m20.957s  + 0.581s
10.  Mihai Marinescu     1m21.041s  + 0.665s
11.  Armaan Ebrahim      1m21.097s  + 0.721s
12.  Kelvin Snoeks       1m21.183s  + 0.807s
13.  Ivan Samarin        1m21.330s  + 0.954s
14.  Ricardo Teixeira    1m21.380s  + 1.004s
15.  Benjamin Lariche    1m21.531s  + 1.155s
16.  Julian Theobald     1m21.620s  + 1.244s
17.  Johannes Theobald   1m21.759s  + 1.383s
18.  Plamen Kralev       1m22.178s  + 1.802s