Frenchman Gets Hung Up Behind Tagliani, But Powers To Portland Victory

By John Oreovicz
NSSN Correspondent
PORTLAND, Ore. — Sebastien Bourdais believes he and Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing haven’t figured out how to get the best out of Bridgestone’s tires over one lap with the new Panoz DP01 Champ Car.
But they seem to have found the knack over a race distance.
The three-time series champion fell to fifth place in the first 30 laps of the Mazda Grand Prix of Portland, while Justin Wilson built a 16-second lead. A short-fill pit stop elevated Bourdais to second, and by the time the second round of stops was complete 54 laps into the contest, the Frenchman was right on Wilson’s gearbox.
On the 57th lap, the McDonald’s car made a clean and decisive pass for the lead at the Festival Chicane. Bourdais then pulled away over the final 46 laps to win by 13.537 seconds over Wilson and rookie Robert Doornbos. The margin would have been even greater at the flag after 103 laps had the leader not been held up trying to lap the battle for fifth between Alex Tagliani and Dan Clarke.
The victory was the 26th of Bourdais’s Champ Car career and the 100th for Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing. The winner averaged 114.816 miles per hour in a race that was run without a caution period.
Turning a 16-second deficit into a 13-second win might have been the most impressive of Bourdais’s many victories over the last four-plus seasons.
“I think we just didn’t seem to be able to put it together either on Friday or Saturday,” said the 28-year-old Frenchman, who started third. “It just seemed pretty clear after a while today that the McDonald’s car was superior, and we were just able to maintain the advantage.
“It’s a pretty sweet win — number 100 for the team,” he added. “I’m just very, very honored to be a part of this.”
When Bourdais dropped to fourth place after Champ Car’s first standing start while Wilson streaked away into the lead, victory looked unlikely. His task got tougher when he was passed by Tagliani on lap 20.
But Bourdais stretched his first tank of fuel the longest, and once the pit-stop exchange elevated him to second place, he began taking .8 second a lap from Wilson’s lead.
“In the first stint everything was working really well, and I was just cruising,” said pole-winner Wilson. “Then in the second stint I was expecting to pick up the pace and it never happened. Ultimately, we weren’t quite quick enough. Sebastien just slowly ate into my lead, and eventually after the second pit stop he managed to get by me.”
The way the fleet Frenchman pulled away must have alarmed his competition. By the checkered flag, Doornbos was more than 35 seconds in arrears, and there were only six cars on the lead lap.
“I think it would have been a little easier had we had a caution because we had to run Justin down from 15 seconds,” Bourdais said. “That wasn’t the easiest way to do it. But we definitely put on a good show.”
Bourdais extended his championship lead to 11 points over Team Australia’s Will Power, who finished fourth.