Baltimore Indy Lights: Dominant Tristan Vautier grabs points lead
| By Mark Glendenning |
Sunday, September 2nd 2012, 18:14 GMT |
 Tristan Vautier cruised to victory in the Indy Lights race in Baltimore, picking up the championship lead from Esteban Guerrieri in the process.
Vautier enjoyed a straightforward race to cross the line 15.3 seconds clear of Gustavo Yacaman, who was lucky to escape damage when he managed to make contact with both Guerrieri and Sebastian Saavedra in the same corner.
He had dived inside Guerrieri at the hairpin in an effort to take second, leaving Guerrieri with no choice but to brush the outside barriers.
Yacaman was able to continue, but then caught Saavedra as the Colombian was trying to go inside him at the exit of the corner, tipping the Andretti driver into the wall.
Saavedra's car suffered a broken nose, prompting a costly visit to the pits. Guerrieri, on the other hand, managed to recover to finish third, although the seven-point championship lead that he had taken into the race had turned into an 11-point deficit with one round remaining.
Drive of the day belonged to Carlos Munoz, who worked his way from 12th on the grid up to fourth before suffering a mechanical problem one lap before the end. Results - 35 laps:
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Tristan Vautier Schmidt 50m07.1769s
2. Gustavo Yacaman Moore + 15.3783s
3. Esteban Guerrieri Schmidt + 17.3347s
4. David Ostella Moore + 46.3099s
5. Peter Dempsey Belardi + 51.2491s
6. Oliver Webb Schmidt + 58.6928s
7. Jorge Goncalvez Belardi + 1m19.7736s
8. Adderly Fong Brooks + 1m22.6538s
9. Juan Pablo Garcia Jeffrey Mark + 2 laps
10. Sebastian Saavedra AFS/Andretti + 5 laps
Retirements:
Carlos Munoz Andretti 29 laps
Emerson Newton-John Fan Force 3 laps
Victor Carbone Schmidt 0 laps
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