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Carlin's Ed Jones snatched a last gasp Indy Lights title at the Laguna Seca finale to beat Santiago Urrutia, thanks to a late assist from team-mate Felix Serralles.

Jones went into the final race seven points ahead of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' Urrutia, starting the race from pole position.

But second row pair of Zach Veach and Urrutia slipped past the cautious Jones into Turn 3 on lap one while Jones dropped back to fifth.

Those positions meant the points were tied, and would have handed former GP3 man Urrutia the title on race win countback (four compared to Jones' two).

Jones was less than a second behind team-mate Serralles throughout, and on the final lap the Puerto Rican let Jones past in Turn 3, giving him enough points to take the title.

Heading into the weekend, the top six were all mathematically capable of taking the title, but a single point separated Urrutia and Jones at the top, with Dean Stoneman an outside chance a further 22 back in third.

Stoneman put himself out of contention in a messy first race in which he came together with Serralles and dropped back to 10th, before further adventures on lap 11, this time bumping with Zachary Claman De Melo at the Andretti Hairpin.

Race stewards deemed the British driver at fault, and handed him a drive through penalty, pushing him down to 14th and out of title contention.

Second for Jones and fifth for Urrutia in the first race left the Carlin driver leading by seven points for the finale.

Jones's title win means he is gifted a scholarship for a three-race programme in next year's IndyCar season - including a prestigious slot on the grid for the 101st Indianapolis 500.