BALTIMORE -- All three of Tristan Vautier's Firestone Indy Lights victories have come from the pole. That's exactly what he needs again Sept. 2 in the Grand Prix of Baltimore -- the penultimate race of the season.

Vautier moved to within six points of series championship front-runner Esteban Guerrieri by earning a bonus point for his fifth Sunoco Pole Award with a qualifying track-record lap of 1 minute, 23.6893 seconds on the 2.04-mile, 13-turn temporary street circuit.

"It was good, very intense," said Vautier, who won the pole at Sonoma a week earlier. "I really enjoy the track here; it’s long and there are many corners. Usually street courses are quite short, with a few exceptions like Long Beach, and here there are many corners. It’s very interesting because it makes it harder to put everything together."

Click it: Qualifying results

The 2011 Star Mazda champion doesn't have any margin of error, however, in the 35-lap race. Guerrieri will start alongside his Sam Schmidt Motorsports teammate after a best lap that was .8050 of a second off the pace.

"I knew qualifying was quite long, 40 minutes, but I knew we were likely to have red flags, so I tried to push from the start and get some good laps in early on," Vautier added. "The team, as always, gave me a great car, so it’s good to know that the performance relies on my performance inside of the car. Looking forward to (Sept. 2), it’s going to be a tough race."

It is the fifth front-row start for Guerrieri, who has recorded two of his three victories after starting second, and fifth consecutive top-five start.

"Obviously, Tristan had the edge. On the second set of tires he was on it," Guerrieri said. "And he did a very good lap. My car was OK. We could have improved with a third set (of tires)."

The 40-minute qualifying session was shortened by 3:40 because of track clean-up from a crash involving the No. 42 Pink & Blue for Two car of Fan Force United driven by Emerson Newton-John at the exit of the chicane on the Pratt Street straight. Newton-John was evaluated and cleared to drive.

The top four, including Sebastian Saavedra and Carlos Munoz, had pitted a couple of minutes earlier for fresh tires.

Saavedra, driving the No. 27 Team AFS car, qualified third and Munoz in the No. 26 Team Dialy-Ser car qualified fourth. Oliver Webb qualified fifth in the No. 7 Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt car, while defending race winner Gustavo Yacaman was sixth in the No. 2 TMR-Tuvacol-Xtreme Coil Drilling entry.

Following post-qualifying technical inspection, Firestone Indy Lights officials announced that the No. 26 entry has been penalized loss of starting position for not complying with Rule 14.5.1 involving aerodynamic configurations.