BOURDAIS STEALS CHAMP CAR POLE AT ZOLDER
French star Sebastien Bourdais (#1 McDonald’s Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone)
scored the pole position at Zolder in Belgium today as the
Champ Car World Series returned to Europe for the first time
since 2003.
Bourdais lapped the 4.01km circuit in 1 minute 12.821 seconds
setting the track record at the historic former home of the
Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The three-time champion is looking to become the first driver
to win four consecutive Champ Car titles, and after earning
one championship point for today’s pole position, Bourdais
now leads the race for the Vanderbilt Cup by 38 points over
third place qualifier Robert Doornbos (#14 Minardi Team USA
Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone).
After not being able to run in yesterday’s qualifying
because of mechanical issues, Doornbos showed the speed that
has put him at the top of the rookie-of-the-year standings
to earn the third spot on the grid.
Though his time was faster than Team Australia’s Will
Power (#5 Aussie Vineyards Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone), the
Aussie driver will start second after setting the fastest
time in Friday’s qualifying session. Tomorrow will mark
the fourth time Bourdais and Power have shared the front row.
Brazilian star Bruno Junqueira (#19 Sonny’s Bar-B-Q
Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) will start fourth, his best starting
spot of the year and Dale Coyne Racing’s best start
since Long Beach in 1998.
The third row will be made up of the RuSPORT/Rocketsports
duo of British driver Justin Wilson (#9 CDW Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone)
and Canadian Alex Tagliani (#8 Rocketsports Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone).
Both drivers moved up considerably from Friday’s qualifying
session.
Local hero, Jan Heylen (#34 Grafiprint Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone)
will start 11th. The Belgian driver was unable to run on Friday
after being involved in a multi-car accident in the morning
practice. His Conquest team worked until well after midnight
last night to rebuild Heylen’s DP01.
QUOTES FROM THE TOP THREE STARTERS
Sebastien Bourdais: “It was a little
harder than I thought. The 15 minute practice went really
well with the standard tires on the McDonald’s car.
I thought when we put the red tires on it was going to be
easier and the lap time would come really fast but we got
a little bit of traffic and I made a couple of mistakes and
didn't hit the tires when they were at their best.”
Will Power: “That is exactly how we
thought it would play out today so we used the red tires yesterday
to try and guarantee a front row start. We are thinking of
tomorrow – we need to win a race and everything has
played out exactly as I wanted, no problem.”
Robert Doornbos : “Today went really
well. It is an amazing circuit to drive with Champ Cars, it's
really fast – turn one and two in particular we have
been going faster and faster.”
NO LUCK FOR FRENCHMAN IN "DOWN UNDER"
CHAMP CAR
Team Australia driver Simon Pagenaud left Zolder with a touch
of disappointment after qualifying eighth fastest today.
The French Champ Car rookie and 2006 Champ Car Atlantic champion
was third fastest on the opening day, but couldn't repeat
that performance on day two.
Pagenaud was hoping to put on a good performance for his
students who attend SPID - Simon Pagendaud Innovation Development
- a race school he started at Circuit Du Val de Vienne in
2003.
Starting with 25 students in its debut year, SPID now has
more than 300 - most of whom have actually made the trip to
Zolder this weekend to see their teacher compete in the Champ
Car Grand Prix of Belgium.
“We had a great Aussie Vineyards car and it had a pretty
good balance. I don’t really know why we couldn’t
make the lap time today," Pagenaud said.
"I was held up by Katherine (Legge) in the last lap,
so that didn’t help, because that was my fastest lap.
"I think that would have put us on the first two rows,
which is quite a shame, but that’s how it is and we’ll
try to have good record during the race tomorrow.”am
will pull together to have a great session tomorrow.”
Final Qualifying
Pos - Driver - Country - Time
1 Sebastien Bourdais France 1:12.821
3 Will Power Australia 1:13.194 *
2 Robert Doornbos Netherlands 1:13.067
4 Bruno Junqueira Brazil 1:13.313
5 Justin Wilson England 1:13.327
6 Alex Tagliani Canada 1:13.384
7 Paul Tracy Canada 1:13.407
8 Simon Pagenaud France 1:13.436
9 Neel Jani Switzerland 1:13.555
10 Oriol Servia Spain 1:13.720
11 Jan Heylen Belgium 1:13.768
12 Mario Dominguez England 1:13.810
13 Graham Rahal USA 1:13.822
14 Katherine Legge England 1:13.987
15 Tristan Gommendy France 1:13.995
16 Ryan Dalziel Scotland 1:14.002
17 Alex Figge USA 1:14.744
* Fastest time on Friday earns a guaranteed front row start.
The Belgian Champ Car Grand Prix gets the green flag tomorrow,
Sunday, August 26 at 2 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET). Sunday’s
race can be seen live on ESPN Classic in the United States
and Eurosport 2 in Europe
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