Indy Lights: Baron keeps his head in Toronto

Rookie Alex Baron led Gabby Chaves to a Belardi team 1-2 in Sunday's Indy Lights race in Toronto.

On a damp but drying track, the Frenchman led the field away from pole and swiftly opened a gap over his teammate. Content that the job was done, Baron eased off a little over the final laps and crossed the line with a victory margin of 1.2358 seconds.

"It feels good to win a race, and even better to do it in Indy Lights because it is prestigious," he said. "So I am honored and thrilled."

Second place was enough for Chaves to reinforce his points advantage over Zach Veach, although the Colombian was forced to pick up the pace toward the end in response to a late charge by Jack Harvey, who cut a 7-second gap down to 0.3sec.

"I couldn't keep with them at the start, and that's where the initial gap came from," Harvey said. "With the IndyCar race getting rescheduled our race was cut short by about 20 minutes, and those 20 minutes turned out to be the most important."

Matthew Brabham crossed the line in fourth, one place ahead of Veach.

Luiz Razia's difficult mid-season continued when he was forced to retire early on after a clash with Zach Meyer at Turn 1, while a single-car accident on the same lap accounted for series returnee Ryan Phinney.