Toronto Indy Lights: Alex Baron tops messy qualifying for Belardi

On a damp track, Baron went to the top relatively early with a 1m06.01892, and the manner in which the rest of the session unfolded meant that he was still there at the end.

Indeed, he didn't even bother to go back out onto the track for the brief final spell of greens.

"The session was pretty hard," he said. "The rain started before the session so I was a bit nervous and didn't know what to expect. So I'm very happy."

Early on, the driver who looked most likely to beat him was team-mate and points leader Gabby Chaves.

However, just as everyone pitted to change tyres, Chaves's car suddenly lost drive and left him stranded on the track just after Turn 2, bringing out out the red flags.

The maximum penalty for causing a red flag is the loss of a driver's two fastest laps, but Chaves - who was not responsible for his car's failure, and who did all within his power to get his car out of harm's way - was only deducted one fast lap, which allowed him to remain in second.

Ordinarily that would still have left him vulnerable, but fate smiled on him when Zach Meyer spun immediately after the restart, and moments later, Juan Piedrahita hit the tyres and brought the reds out again.

By the time the mess was cleared up there was only enough time for each driver to get one green lap, and it wasn't enough to have any impact on the order.

Matthew Brabham will start alongside Jack Harvey on the second row, ahead of Luiz Razia and Zach Veach.

Pos  Driver             Team       Time        Gap
 1.  Alex Baron         Belardi    1m06.0182s
 2.  Gabby Chaves       Belardi    1m06.3149s  +0.2967s
 3.  Matthew Brabham    Andretti   1m06.3240s  +0.3058s
 4.  Jack Harvey        Schmidt    1m06.4005s  +0.3823s
 5.  Luiz Razia         Schmidt    1m06.7516s  +0.7334s
 6.  Zach Veach         Andretti   1m07.3302s  +1.3120s
 7.  Matthew Di Leo     MDL        1m07.6093s  +1.5911s
 8.  Zack Meyer         Moore      1m07.6314s  +1.6132s
 9.  Juan Piedrahita    Schmidt    1m07.7937s  +1.7755s
10.  Ryan Phinny        BHA/JMM    1m07.8348s  +1.8166s
11.  Juan Pablo Garcia  Schmidt    1m07.9521s  +1.9339s
12.  Scott Anderson     Fan Force  1m08.4436s  +2.4254s