The 23-year old rookie withstood tremendous pressure to win Sundas 154-lap event in a photo finish over Mario Dominguez and Michel Jourdain Jr.
Sebastien Bourdais entered Sundas German 500 at Eurospeedway Lausitz with no oval racing experience whatsoever, but that didt stop the flying Frenchman from earning a remarkable debut victory. The 23-year old rookie withstood tremendous pressure to win Sundas 154-lap event in a photo finish over Mario Dominguez and Michel Jourdain Jr.
After rattling his Newman/Haas Racing teammate Bruno Junqueira by claiming pole position on Saturday, Bourdais throttled his Champ Car competition on Sunday on the way to his second consecutive race win. Given that it came on a completely different kind of track than where he took his first CART win at Brands Hatch last Monday, Sebasties achievement was all the more notable.
Is gotten people talking about another former FIA Formula 3000 start who went on to greater success in Champ Cars Juna Pablo Montoya, who won the 1999 CART championship in his rookie season. With only five of 19 races in the 2003 Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford completed, is a little early to talk about Bourdais making a championship run. But the signs are clear that it could happen.
It was a perfect weekend and I have to thank the Newman/Haas team for giving me a great car said Bourdais, who led 74 laps and averaged a race-record 170.903 mphIt was a high-speed game and I think I did pretty well
Bourdai chief competition came from the dueling Mexicans, Dominguez and Jourdain, each of whom recovered from penalties to challenge for the win before falling short. Jourdain was given a 15-second delay for causing a pit-lane accident that eliminated Patrick Lemarie on Lap 27, but he was able to work his way back into contention with the help of a Lap 83 yellow for debris.
By that time, Dominguez had also been penalized. The 26-year old, who has shown dramatically improved form in 2003, took the lead for the first time on the 35th lap. But in his zeal to keep the top spot, Dominguez resorted to weaving tactics, several times nearly putting Bourdais into the inside wall on the pit straight.
On Lap 55, Champ Car officials issued the Herdez Competition Team a warning for excessive blocking, and when the field pitted at the end of the third 27-lap stint on Lap 81 with Dominguez still in the lead he was held for an additional five seconds by a CART official for continued blocking.
The Lap 83 yellow that helped Jourdain also assisted Dominguez, and when green flag racing resumed on Lap 89, so did the battle for the lead. Junqueira ran strongly enough to lead a few laps around the 100-lap mark, but he faded to a fourth place finish 12 seconds behind the lead trio.
Up front, Jourdain caught up to Bourdais and Dominguez and he actually led out of the pits from the final round of stops on Lap 138. But it soon became a two-man battle for the win.
I caught up but I just didt have anything for those guys Jourdain said.
Bourdais made his Lilly Lola a wide machine over the final thirteen laps, but he managed to keep in front all the way to the checkered flag.
It was a lot of fun, for sure Bourdais remarkedIt was a lot of stress, too. It was a great race with Mario, except we just had a very little struggle when he didn't really see me and I went across the grass. I think that's why they penalized him. It was very fair, but so tight and really difficult to keep out of trouble. It's the second win in a row, so what can I expect more
Dominguez and the Herdez team felt the penalty for blocking was unjustified and may have cost them the victoryI had a lot of fun racing wheel to wheel with Sebastien he saidIt was very clean and very aggressive. But m very disappointed with the penalty the officials gave me for blocking. As far as I can tell, I didt do anything wrong.
When I was behind Sebastien, he did the exact same thing but he didt get a penalty Dominguez continuedI was doing all the right moves and I think Sebastien was too. If not, I want to see the video
Junqueira beat Oriol Servia for fourth place in a separate photo finish 12 seconds behind the leaders. The result moved Bruno into a tie for the championship lead with Paul Tracy, who finished 12th on Sunday two laps off the pace.
The car was very slow and there is a lesson to be learned here as we should have done a better job in making choices before coming over here Tracy saidIf your car is not on the same level as the others it's hard to compete with them. We were not competitive
Darren Manning fought understeer as he drove a lonely race to sixth place, while his Walker Racing teammate Rodolfo Lavin finished a CART career-best eighth.
