Dario Franchitti led Honda’s best qualifying performance of the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series season Saturday around the 2.5-mile Parque Anhembi temporary street circuit, posting the second-fastest time and missing the pole by just four-hundredths of a second, as Honda-powered drivers and teams claimed six of the top nine starting positions for Sunday’s Itaipava Sao Paulo Indy 300.

Despite fading brakes in the final “Fast Six” round of knockout qualifying – which led to a pair of offcourse excursions – Scott Dixon rebounded to post the third-fastest time in his final lap of qualifying, while Justin Wilson rounded out the top six with his best qualifying performance of 2012.

Three more Honda-powered drivers just missed the opportunity to advance to the final qualifying round, but Graham Rahal, Mike Conway and impressive series rookie Josef Newgarden will start seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively. Sunday’s 75-lap race starts at 11 a.m. EDT, with live television coverage on the NBC Sports Network.

Dario Franchitti (#10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) qualified 2nd:

“This definitely feels a lot better than the first three races. I made a mistake in Turn Five on my last lap, and I think that was the difference between Will [Power] and myself today. I’m disappointed, but after some of the struggles we had earlier this year, it’s good to be disappointed with second. The car is much, much better now. It’s a combination of the work the team has done, a good job from Honda, and I think I’m finally driving the car properly. Congratulations to Will, he put the lap together, and it should be an exciting race tomorrow.”