Friday, November 9, 2007 Gran Premio Tecate Presented by Banamex – Mexico City, Mexico Round 14 of 14 in the Champ Car World Series 2007 Season
McDONALD’S ® DRIVER BOURDAIS EARNED 46TH FRONT ROW START IN 73RD EVENT BY WINNING PROVISIONAL POLE FOR THE GRAN PREMIO TECATE PRESENTED BY BANAMEX; MEDI | ZONE DRIVER RAHAL FIFTH
Sebastien Bourdais, No. 1 McDonald’s Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone: “It feels really good. The McDonald’s car was very competitive on the track. My team did a great job again. No surprise there. It's a place we've been pretty solid here in Mexico City, pretty competitive and solid at the front. Everything is going according to plan. Just made a couple of mistakes on the second run on the options, which definitely were quite a bit better, so expecting a little bit more out of the car tomorrow and hopefully we can stay on top and have a great weekend again. I've never really given too much importance to records or anything like that. We're just trying to do our job and enjoy it, and we do just that. It would be awesome, not to set a record but to finish on a high and have a great weekend because as successful as that group has been, obviously you don't really want to leave with a bad day. It's racing; you never control hardly anything, but for sure it would be a lot better this way. I think it would be completely disrespectful to my team to project myself already on next season this weekend. My Champ Car career will be over on Sunday night and not before that."
FAST FACTS: Clinched his fourth consecutive title at the previous race in Australia with an insurmountable lead over second place Wilson (333-270)… 46 Front Row Starts in 73 events: (7 of 18 in 2003; 11 of 14 in 2004; 7 of 13 in 2005; 11 of 14 in 2006; 10 of 14 in 2007) …Will be his fifth race here and final Champ Car event. In 2006 he started second and led a total of 24 laps but was in second place on the final lap before he charged past Justin Wilson in Turn 6 of 15 to win. Also set the fastest race lap. In 2005, started third but had a problem with the ECU and had to pit early where he had a troubled stop and later retired in 17th after contact with Cristiano da Matta. Started from pole in 2004, set the fastest race lap and led all 63 laps to win the race and championship but not before he overcame a Lap 41/63 mistake where he spun after having built a 17-second lead. Started fourth in 2003 and finished second…Bourdais made 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: “The track is great; it’s really dirty and slick but a lot of fun. I think everything is going well for the Medi | Zone team. We still need to find a bit of speed in the car though. It was difficult to do that lap time. It’s always tough to find the last bit out of these cars but certainly today it was a little more difficult. A little bit of time makes a lot of difference here because if you can get a little more time through the esses, every one single corner adds up to quite a bit since there are fix or six turns in a row. We should be able to get up there if we can improve the car a little bit.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his first Champ Car race in Mexico City...Is ranked fifth with 220 points…Finished runner-up to the champion in the Atlantic standings in 2006 after the fight went to the Road America finale and he retired in 20th due to an electrical failure after starting third. Also competed in two Formula BMW events here in 2004 and once in Start Mazda in 2005…Finished second in the 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).
In their previous five years of racing here, NHR has earned TWO WINS (Bourdais 2006, 2004), ONE POLE (Bourdais 2004) and FIVE PODIUM finishes (2nd – Junqueira 2004, Bourdais 2003, da Matta 2002). NHLR hopes to add to these numbers.
The morning practice will take place from 10:15-11:30 AM CST while final qualifying will begin at 2:00 PM.
