Race
Pos | Nat | Name | Team | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Justin Wilson | RuSPORT | 69 | 1:46:02.236 | 2 | 32 | |
2 | Jan Heylen | Conquest Racing | 69 | +7.227 | 7 | 27 | |
3 | Bruno Junqueira | Dale Coyne Racing | 69 | +8.419 | 11 | 26 | |
4 | Tristan Gommendy | PKV Racing | 69 | +9.037 | 3 | 23 | |
5 | Neel Jani | PKV Racing | 69 | +22.262 | 4 | 21 | |
6 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Australia | 69 | +22.698 | 5 | 19 | |
7 | Sébastien Bourdais | N/H/L Racing | 69 | +22.955 | 1 | 18 | |
8 | Oriol Servià | Forsythe Racing | 69 | +23.406 | 13 | 15 | |
9 | Graham Rahal | N/H/L Racing | 69 | +23.949 | 6 | 13 | |
10 | Ryan Dalziel | Pacific Coast Motorsports | 69 | +29.554 | 15 | 11 | |
11 | Dan Clarke | Minardi Team USA | 69 | +38.903 | 10 | 11 | |
12 | Katherine Legge | Dale Coyne Racing | 69 | +44.860 | 14 | 9 | |
13 | Robert Doornbos | Minardi Team USA | 69 | +1:00.638 | 9 | 8 | |
14 | Will Power | Team Australia | 69 | +1:01.204 | 8 | 7 | |
15 | Alex Tagliani | Rocketsports | 68 | + 1 Lap | 12 | 6 | |
16 | Alex Figge | Pacific Coast Motorsports | 68 | + 1 Lap | 16 | 5 | |
17 | Paul Tracy | Forsythe Racing | 14 | Mechanical | 17 | 4 |
Starting on the front row beside pole sitter Sébastien Bourdais, Justin Wilson drove into the lead in the first corner. Bourdais then began to lose multiple positions when a software bug in his car's ECU engaged the pit speed limiter when he pressed the power to pass button. He was able to save losing further positions when a spin by Paul Tracy brought out a full course yellow.
Wilson settled into the lead followed by PKV teammates Neel Jani and Tristan Gommendy, Graham Rahal and then Bourdais. Almost unnoticed, Bruno Junqueira pitted under green on lap 8. When a caution came out for debris on lap 14 and the rest of the field pitted for the first time Junqueira took the lead, which he held until he pitted on lap 26.
By this point in the race it was determined that other cars were suffering the same power to pass glitch as Bourdais and Champ Car sent out an edict that all drivers must refrain from using "the button" for the remainder of the race.
A second debris caution brought the field save Junquiera into the pits on lap 31 and once again Junquiera came out of the caution in the lead. After providing Dale Coyne Racing with its best ever finish with a second place the previous week at Zolder, it began to look as if Bruno would follow up with Coyne's first victory as he extended his lead over Wilson.
Junquiera pitted for the final time on lap 49. With a clean pitstop he should have cycled back to the lead when Wilson came in for his final stop on lap 51. However when the stops were finished he found himself in third behind Wilson and Jan Heylen. It was later determined that on his final stop, his pit lane limiter did not properly activate, causing him to spend eight extra seconds on pit lane. This glitch likely cost him the victory.
As it was, Justin Wilson led the final 20 laps in front of Heylen and Junquiera to take the win. It was Justin's first race win since the 2006 Edmonton Grand Prix. Heylen's second place was his best ever Champ Car result and tied the best ever result for Conquest Racing.
Bourdais' race never really got going after the trouble at the start. He was forced to battle back through the entire field after stalling his car during his second pit stop and dropping back to 16th place. His seventh place finish wasn't good enough to seal his fourth consecutive Champ Car championship, extending the fading hopes of his competitors for at least one more race.
Read more about this topic: 2007 Bavaria Champ Car Grand Prix
Famous quotes containing the word race:
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