Saturday, April 21, 2007 Grand Prix of Houston – JAGFlo Speedway at Reliant Park, Houston, Texas Round 3 of 14 in the Champ Car World Series 2007 Season
McDONALD'S® DRIVER BOURDAIS LOST HIS FASTEST LAP THAT INITIALLY PUT HIM ON POLE FOR THE GRAND PRIX OF HOUSTON; SECOND FASTEST LAP EARNS SECOND PLACE START
1st: Will Power 57.405 / 105.545 mph
2nd: Sebastien Bourdais 57.653 / 105.091 mph (lost lap time: 57.242 / 105.845 mph)
6th: Graham Rahal 57.896 / 104.650 mph
OVERALL: Champ Car officials took away Sebastien Bourdais’ fastest lap time in final qualifying after ruling that he interfered in a qualifying lap of Team Australia driver Will Power. His second fastest lap time earned him a second place starting spot on the grid for the Grand Prix of Houston.
Sebastien Bourdais, No. 1 McDonald’s Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone: “I think I am the kind of guy that admits when I have done something wrong and I do not think this is the case. The only reason why Walker protested is because they saw the potential that they could nail us, not because they were quicker because they were slow on that lap. It would not have changed the outcome whether I interfered on that lap, tried to or tried to get out of the way or anything. They don’t care about that. It’s just like a payback that goes on and on and on. If they can nail us they are just going to nail us. They protested and Champ Car ruled in their favor but the truth is the only reason they protested is because they could nail us. That lap would not have changed the outcome of qualifying.”
Brian Lisles, General Manager of Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing: “Qualifying on street courses is always difficult, there is always a lot of traffic. In final qualifying Sebastien had at least three laps that should have been three or four tenths quicker than his pole position lap but he ran into traffic and had to back off. It’s really most unfortunate but Champ Car has decided to take away Sebastien’s fastest lap. For instance, not only did Sebastien lose at least two or three better laps than the one he managed to get in but Graham was held up on his last lap by a couple of cars on the last couple of corners and we’re sure that lap was much quicker than he took his grid position with.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his second race here. Last year he recovered from losing provisional pole on Thursday due to disqualification (under weight), started qualified fifth and won the event. He charged to the front and pressured race leader Dominguez into a mistake. Led a total of 33 laps and set the fastest race lap to increase his lead over second place to 18 points after Round 2 of 15. Was the second of four consecutive wins last season...Became the first open wheel driver to win three consecutive championships since Ted Horn accomplished the feat from 1946-1948 and only the second in the 98 year history of the sport…He has the rare opportunity to win four consecutive championships this year if he can again capture the Vanderbilt Cup, which would extend his run that began in 2004. Bourdais would be making history as no Champ Car driver has ever won four straight championships. Four in a row is very rare in professional sports in fact it has never been done in either NASCAR or NFL and it hasn’t been accomplished in the last twenty years in the NBA, NHL or MLB.
Graham Rahal, No. 2 Medi | Zone Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone: "Qualifying was really disappointing for the Medi | Zone team. We have a better car than this. It was difficult to get a lap out there. And frankly the lap that I did have, which would have probably put us third, which was the last lap, both Will (Power) and Robert (Doornbos) blocked me so that was it. It’s just disappointing because they weren’t on good laps so they should have gotten out of the way but instead they decided to ruin mine. I think we’ve got a good race car; I think we can drive around most of the guys that are in front of us. Honestly Seb is the only one who I think has got a much better race car than we do. We were very consistent in the pre-quals. Everybody ran new tires and we ran old tires and were third. The car felt really good doing those speeds. I think in the race we’re looking pretty good.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his second race here and first in a Champ Car. Started third in the Atlantics race here last year and was in second place when he collided with Raphael Matos while attempting to take the lead with three laps to go and finished 15th…First test in a Lola Champ Car was for the team in Sebring, Fla. on September 13-14, 20006. Also ran in Homestead, Fla. and Houston in 2006. Tested the DP01 Panoz in Sebring, Houston and Laguna Seca in 2007. .. Rahal finished second in the 2006 Champ Car Atlantic championship after a title hunt that concluded in the season finale. Led 129 laps to champion Pagenaud’s 31. He earned a series-high five wins (42 percent), four poles (33 percent) and six podium finishes (50 percent) in the 12 events and at 17 years old was the youngest race winner in series history (Monterrey, Mexico on 5-21-06).
ONE WIN FOR NHLR IN HOUSTON: NHLR competed in the Houston street race from 1998 to 2001 and their best result was a third place finish by Michael Andretti in 1999 after he started 11th. Carl Haas was the CEO of the entity that promoted the races from ‘98 to ‘01. Last year, Bourdais won from a fifth place start while Junqueira started second but finished 10th after a fuel miscalculation. This year the team will compete here as Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing. Mike Lanigan is the promoter of the event.
The morning warm-up will take place from 10:00-10:30 AM CT while the Grand Prix of Houston will begin at 2:00 PM CT and will be televised live on ESPN.
