Vautier all the way on streets of Baltimore

Tristan Vautier reclaimed the points lead with a commanding victory in the Grand Prix of Baltimore. The 2011 Star Mazda champion, driving the No. 77 Mazda Road to Indy/Sam Schmidt Motorsports with Curb Agajanian car, takes an 11-point advantage over teammate Esteban Guerrieri into the Sept. 15 race on the 2-mile oval in Fontana, Calif.

"He has been stellar all weekend," team owner Sam Schmidt, who recorded his 53rd Firestone Indy Lights win, said of Vautier.

Vautier swept the bonus points for earning the Sunoco Pole Award and leading the most laps on the 2.04-mile, 13-turn temporary street circuit. He won by 15.3783 seconds over Gustavo Yacaman, who got past Guerrieri on Lap 4 after their cars made contact battling for second entering the sharp right-hand Turn 1.

"This win feels great. From the start of the weekend the car was hooked up," said Vautier, who turned 23 on Aug. 22. "I’d like to thank Sam (Schmidt) and Mazda for putting me in the car this weekend. We scored lots of points so that was very good for us with an oval at Fontana coming up next. We have to stay focused and arrive ready in California."

Indy Lights Results:

Fin Car Driver Diff. Gap BL Time Start Comment
1 77 Tristan Vautier 0.0000 0.0000 22 1:25.0696 1 Running
2 2 Gustavo Yacaman 15.3783 15.3783 26 1:25.0599 5 Running
3 11 Esteban Guerrieri 17.3347 1.9564 29 1:25.2997 2 Running
4 22 David Ostella 46.3099 28.9752 33 1:25.6298 9 Running
5 9 Peter Dempsey 1 LAPS 2.7091 33 1:25.6460 11 Running
6 7 Oliver Webb 1 LAPS 10.4133 22 1:25.7570 4 Running
7 4 Jorge Goncalvez 1 LAPS 18.1968 15 1:26.9083 8 Running
8 8 Adderly Fong 1 LAPS 7.9791 25 1:25.2696 6 Running
9 76 Juan Pablo Garcia 2 LAPS 1 LAPS 11 1:26.0211 7 Running
10 26 Carlos Munoz 6 LAPS 3 LAPS 21 1:24.6367 12 Mechanical
11 27 Sebastian Saavedra 6 LAPS 8:11.7043 27 1:23.9799 3 Running
12 42 Emerson Newton-John 32 LAPS 26 LAPS 3 1:31.4953 10 Contact
13 3 Victor Carbone 35 LAPS 3 LAPS 0 0 13 DNS