Tony Kanaan briefly held the track record on the 2.536-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit for the Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300 presented by Nestle. That he'll be starting a season-high fourth in the 75-lap race in the No. 11 Itaipava KV Racing Technology-SH Racing car overrides losing the record in qualifying to Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Kanaan, who will be making his 200th consecutive Indy car start and is driving with torn ligaments in his right hand, was the quickest driver in Segment 2 of qualifying to advance to the Firestone Fast Six for the first time this season.

"Racing in Brazil is always a huge deal for me because of the crowd,” said Kanaan, a Brazil native. “My fans, family, friends, and sponsors always give me a huge boost every time I come into town, but this race means a little bit more to me than the previous three times that IndyCar raced in São Paulo.

"It will be my 200th consecutive start in IndyCar, 260th if counted all together. People tell me it's a big number. The consecutive starts go all the way back to Portland 2001. I rarely pay attention to numbers or records, but I'm pretty happy with this one."

Teammate Simona de Silvestro, driver of the No. 78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy car, qualified eighth.

"Having both drivers in the top eight is a good achievement," KV Racing Technology team manager Steve Moore said. "They both have great starting spots. It was a little disappointing with Simona not making it through to the top six; we feel like we got blocked a couple of times. However, we've got two cars starting in the top eight and we have two solid race cars, so we're looking for great results."