Sebastien Bourdais baptised the new 1.448-mile San Jose street circuit this weekend by putting his personal stamp on the Grand Prix of San Jose, taking pole position, leading the most laps (63 of 93) and claiming a 3.724-second victory over rival Paul Tracy.
In his Newman Haas Lola, Bourdais took control from the start, avoiding incidents that caused three of five caution periods and using his skills to prevail over Tracy’s Forsythe Lola and his teammate Oriol Servia’s similar Newman Haas Lola. While rookies Ronnie Bremer (Dale Coyne Lola) and Bjorn Wirdheim (HVM Lola) used alternate strategies to lead through the tough California streets, Bourdais took his 13th career victory and increased his point total in the Champ Car World Series title standings.
“I elected to try and be safe, to keep saving fuel and wait for my turn to take the lead back. More importantly I tried not to make any mistakes and I think that was the key of the race,” said the reigning champion. Only half the 18-car field completed the race and five retirements were due to contact on the bumpy, challenging track. “I think I was in the preferred position,” Bourdais added. “A few guys out of sync definitely didn’t make it easy because it was so difficult [saving fuel].”
Tracy admitted that the track was tough, saying, “It is a tricky track for sure with no room for error. It’s narrow and, obviously it’s very slippery so you really had to concentrate on just being smooth.”
Servia still deputizing for the injured Bruno Junqueira had high hopes for the day after qualifying second and admitted that he “knew it was going to be a race of no mistakes so that was my approach.”
From ninth grid slot Justin Wilson brought the Ru SPORT Lola home fourth even though the Briton realised, “This wasn’t our best track but we got out of it almost all that we could.” Mario Dominguez took fifth with his Forsyth Lola while rookie Timo Glock’s took a fine sixth in the Rocketsports Racing Lola.
Bremer, Wirdheim and Alex Tagliani (Team Australia) were the final finishers.
Bourdais now leads Tracy 216-188 points in the points table. Justin Wilson lies in third with 175 and Servia has 160 points in 4th place. A.J. Allmendinger is fifth despite crashing out at San Jose when he hit the turn 4 wall. “To say I’m disappointed is a huge understatement. To say that I’m tired of making those kinds of mistakes is a huge understatement,” said the brutally honest Californian. “I’ve clearly got to fix the problem, but I’m not sure how to just yet, because these results are not acceptable.
