2007 Belgian Champ Car Grand Prix - Race

Race

Pos Nat Name Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 Sébastien Bourdais N/H/L Racing 71 1:45:21.997 1 33
2 Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne Racing 71 +13.7 secs 4 27
3 Graham Rahal N/H/L Racing 71 +14.5 secs 13 26
4 Will Power Team Australia 71 +15.1 secs 2 24
5 Justin Wilson RSPORTS 71 +16.0 secs 5 21
6 Oriol Servià Forsythe Racing 71 +17.2 secs 10 19
7 Robert Doornbos Minardi Team USA 71 +18.4 secs 3 17
8 Neel Jani PKV Racing 71 +19.1 secs 9 15
9 Alex Tagliani RSPORTS 71 +23.8 secs 6 13
10 Paul Tracy Forsythe Racing 71 +24.5 secs 7 11
11 Katherine Legge Dale Coyne Racing 71 +28.8 secs 14 10
12 Simon Pagenaud Team Australia 71 +33.2 secs 8 9
13 Jan Heylen Conquest Racing 71 +1:12.1 11 8
14 Alex Figge Pacific Coast Motorsports 70 + 1 Lap 17 7
15 Ryan Dalziel Pacific Coast Motorsports 67 + 4 Laps 16 6
16 Tristan Gommendy PKV Racing 60 Mechanical 15 5
17 Mario Domínguez Minardi Team USA 47 Tyre 12 4

What began as another Sébastien Bourdais walkover took an interesting turn in the last thirty laps. Bourdais led away from the starting grid and held the lead until his second pit stop lap 40. On that lap, Bourdais lost the lead to a pack of alternate strategy cars who had pitted for the second time during a caution period on lap 27. Included in this pack were his teammate Graham Rahal who took the lead until he ducked into the pits on lap 47, relinquishing the lead to Bourdais.

Things got "really interesting" on lap 50 when a caution came out. Most drivers pitted a final pitstop but four drivers stayed out: Bruno Junqueira, Simon Pagenaud, local driver Jan Heylen, and Tristan Gommendy. Of the four drivers, Junqueira's gambit was the most dangerous to Bourdais, as he had stopped on lap 49. The other drivers only real hope for success was a lot of full course caution laps.

When the green flag came out again, the order was Pagenaud, Heylen, Gommendy, Junqueira, and Bourdais. After two hard fought laps, Junqueira gave up fourth place to Bourdais. Five laps later Gommendy gave up third spot shortly before pitting and then retiring with an oil leak.

Heylen gave up his gambit on lap 59 and while Pagenaud gamely hung on to the lead until lap 63, he never had any reasonable chance to make the end of the race. With that stop, Bourdais re-inherited the lead, while behind him Junqueira gamely clung to second place while saving fuel at the same time. Rahal did not have fuel concerns but was not able to find his way around the veteran driver.

That was the way the race ended, with Bourdais in front by more than 13 seconds. Junqueira's 2nd place was a historic achievement for the Dale Coyne Racing team, its best ever finish. Rahal settled for the fourth podium finish of his rookie season. Bourdais leads the season championship by 53 points over Robert Doornbos. Not an insurmountable lead, but one that leaves his challengers little hope of preventing the capture of his fourth straight Champ Car title.

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