Will Power has secured a front-row starting position for this month’s Indianapolis 500.

The Australian will start the 500-mile race from third position after a strong display in qualifying over the weekend.

Power drove a four-lap qualifying average speed of 230.697 miles per hour (371.19 km/h) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to finish behind pole-sitter Ed Carpenter and James Hinchcliffe for Sunday’s (Monday AM AEST) race.

The result is Power’s second-best qualifying effort in seven Indy 500s as he aims to become the first Australian to secure victory in the iconic event.

“It’s definitely a good place to start,” he said.

“The further up you are the better you are. It’s a good starting place and a very long race. It’s a very interesting style of racing. It’s different than any other racing we have all year with how the draft works.

“I just have to make sure I run well in traffic and put ourselves in a position at the end to win that thing.”

Two other Australians will also be chasing glory at the famous “brickyard”.

Victorian James Davison will be making his first Indy 500 start from 28th position after averaging 228.865 miles per hour (368.24 km/h) in his qualifying run.

“We went fast, but not quite fast enough,” said Davison.

“I’m aware that it is all about the race. From now on, we focus on the race and get the car to handle well in traffic.”

Ryan Briscoe meanwhile will start from 30th place and knows he has a lot of work to do to become competitive after such a poor qualifying run.

“It’s frustrating. I just wish I could have another run,” he said.

“I know we’ve got it in the car. We are going to change a lot of things for the race. It’s disappointing, but hopefully we can move through the field next Sunday.”

The field will hold another practice session on Monday (Tuesday AM AEST) with a final practice run on Friday.