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2007 Gran Premio Tecate

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Mexico 2007 Mexico City
Race details
Race 14 of 14 in the 2007 Champ Car season
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez Track Layout
DateNovember 11, 2007
Official nameGran Premio Tecate Presented by Banamex
LocationAutódromo Hermanos Rodríguez
Mexico City, Mexico
CoursePermanent Road Course
2.774 mi / 4.470 km
Distance64 laps
177.536 mi / 286.080 km
WeatherSunny
Pole position
DriverAustralia Will Power (Team Australia)
Time1:23.558
Fastest lap
DriverNetherlands Robert Doornbos (Minardi Team USA)
Time1:24.713 (on lap 8 of 64)
Podium
FirstFrance Sébastien Bourdais (N/H/L Racing)
SecondAustralia Will Power (Team Australia)
ThirdSpain Oriol Servià (PKV Racing)

The 2007 Gran Premio Tecate was the fourteenth and final round of the 2007 Champ Car World Series season. It was held on November 11, 2007 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, Mexico. The race was won by Sébastien Bourdais in his last Champ Car race before joining the Scuderia Toro Rosso team in Formula One. With the merger of the Indy Racing League and Champ Car World Series in 2008 it would turn out to be the final event run under the Champ Car banner, and 2nd last under the v8 turbo formula.

Qualifying results

[edit]
Pos Nat Name Team Qual 1 Qual 2 Best
1 Australia Will Power Team Australia 1:25.199 1:23.558 1:23.558
2 France Sébastien Bourdais N/H/L Racing 1:24.698 1:24.901 1:24.698
3 Netherlands Robert Doornbos Minardi Team USA 1:26.220 1:24.152 1:24.152
4 Spain Oriol Servià PKV Racing 1:25.436 1:24.324 1:24.324
5 United Kingdom Justin Wilson RuSPORT 1:24.825 1:24.365 1:24.365
6 France Simon Pagenaud Team Australia 1:25.952 1:24.394 1:24.394
7 United States Graham Rahal N/H/L Racing 1:25.889 1:24.515 1:24.515
8 Canada Paul Tracy Forsythe Racing 1:26.130 1:24.608 1:24.608
9 United Kingdom Dan Clarke Minardi Team USA 1:26.617 1:24.764 1:24.764
10 Mexico David Martínez Forsythe Racing 1:26.056 1:24.888 1:24.888
11 Switzerland Neel Jani PKV Racing 1:26.156 1:24.929 1:24.929
12 Brazil Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne Racing 1:26.190 1:25.361 1:25.361
13 France Nelson Philippe Conquest Racing 1:26.952 1:25.405 1:25.405
14 Canada Alex Tagliani Rocketsports Racing 1:27.277 1:25.446 1:25.446
15 Mexico Mario Domínguez Pacific Coast Motorsports 1:26.181 1:25.602 1:25.602
16 United Kingdom Katherine Legge Dale Coyne Racing 1:28.069 1:26.277 1:26.277
17 United States Alex Figge Pacific Coast Motorsports 1:27.230 1:26.582 1:26.582

24 hours after Sébastien Bourdais established a new track record in Friday qualifying at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, seven drivers were able to improve on that mark during Saturday's session. But Will Power was far and away the fastest of the fast on the day, finishing .594 seconds ahead of his closest competitor, Robert Doornbos, thus clinching his fifth pole position of the year and second in succession. Power was driving with a broken wrist suffered in his home race three weeks ago in Australia. Bourdais was unable to better his Friday time, but started the race next to Will Power on the front row of the grid.

Race

[edit]
Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 1 France Sébastien Bourdais N/H/L Racing 64 1:45:02.885 2 32
2 5 Australia Will Power Team Australia 64 +1.906 1 29
3 22 Spain Oriol Servià PKV Racing 64 +3.364 4 25
4 2 United States Graham Rahal N/H/L Racing 64 +7.346 7 23
5 3 Canada Paul Tracy Forsythe Racing 64 +8.593 8 21
6 15 France Simon Pagenaud Team Australia 64 +9.638 6 19
7 19 Brazil Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne Racing 64 +15.823 12 17
8 28 Mexico Mario Domínguez Pacific Coast Motorsports 64 +16.077 15 16
9 21 Switzerland Neel Jani PKV Racing 64 +16.199 11 13
10 9 United Kingdom Justin Wilson RuSPORT 64 +16.954 5 11
11 29 United States Alex Figge Pacific Coast Motorsports 63 + 1 Lap 17 10
12 34 France Nelson Philippe Conquest Racing 63 + 1 Lap 13 9
13 8 Canada Alex Tagliani Rocketsports Racing 62 + 2 Laps 14 8
14 7 Mexico David Martínez Forsythe Racing 58 + 6 Laps 10 7
15 19 United Kingdom Katherine Legge Dale Coyne Racing 56 Mechanical 16 6
16 14 Netherlands Robert Doornbos Minardi Team USA 12 Mechanical 3 6
17 4 United Kingdom Dan Clarke Minardi Team USA 0 Mechanical 9 4

The final race of the season got off to a ragged start as Oriol Servià, Nelson Philippe, and Alex Tagliani all stalled on the grid. At the front, Will Power held off Sébastien Bourdais at the start and took charge of the field behind the pace car. A potential fight for second place in the championship standings between Justin Wilson and Robert Doornbos was blunted when Doornbos' car developed a clutch problem. Doornbos' mechanics valiantly worked to fix the problem in the hopes of securing the point for fastest lap, and after 51 minutes of work, Doornbos did exactly that, securing his third place in the championship over Will Power.

At the front of the race Bourdais was working with a bit of a disadvantage for the race because he and teammate Graham Rahal were docked 22 seconds off the allotted 75 seconds of Power-to-Pass time after they laid rubber down on their grid spots making practice starts during the Sunday morning session. But Bourdais was able to get the power down coming out of the Peraltada corner before Power could. This slight handling difference gave Bourdais a critical speed advantage at the end of the long main straight. Bourdais easily passed Power on the main straight on lap 24 and then held off the Australian for the rest of the race, even after a late race yellow flag tightened up the field.

Bourdais' victory in his final Champ Car race before heading off to Formula One for the 2008 season was his 31st overall, putting him into a tie for 6th on the all-time Champ Car victory list with Paul Tracy and Al Unser Jr.

Highlighting the race behind the Bourdais and Power was the performance of Oriol Servià who recovered from the stall on the grid and fought through the entire field all the way to third place. His performance allowed him to leapfrog from ninth to sixth place in the final championship standings.

Caution flags

[edit]
Laps Cause
1-3 Servià (22), Philippe (34), Tagliani (8) stalled on grid; Clarke (4) off course
55-59 Debris; Legge (11) stalled

Notes

[edit]
Laps Leader
1-23 Will Power
24-64 Sébastien Bourdais
 
Driver Laps led
Sébastien Bourdais 41
Will Power 23

Final Championship standings

[edit]
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included.
[edit]
Previous race:
2007 Lexmark Indy 300
Champ Car World Series
2007 season
Next race:
2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
IndyCar Series event

Previous race:
2006 Gran Premio Telmex
2007 Gran Premio Tecate Next race:
2008 Gran Premio Tecate
cancelled by IndyCar/Champ Car merger