2007 Grand Prix of Houston

2007 Grand Prix of Houston
Race details
Race 3 of 14 in the 2007 Champ Car season
Date April 22, 2007
Official name Grand Prix of Houston
Location JAGFlo Speedway at Reliant Park
Houston, Texas, United States
Course Temporary street circuit
1.700 mi / 2.722 km
Distance 93 laps
158.1 mi / 253.146 km
Weather Cloudy with temperatures reaching up to 80.1 °F (26.7 °C); wind speeds approaching 14 miles per hour (23 km/h)[1]
Pole position
Driver Will Power (Team Australia)
Time 57.405
Fastest lap
Driver Sébastien Bourdais (N/H/L Racing)
Time 58.018 (on lap 93 of 93)
Podium
First Sébastien Bourdais (N/H/L Racing)
Second Graham Rahal (N/H/L Racing)
Third Robert Doornbos (Minardi Team USA)

The 2007 Grand Prix of Houston was the third round of the 2007 Champ Car World Series Season, held on April 22 at JAGFlo Speedway at Reliant Park.

Qualifying results

Pos Nat Name Team Qual 1 Qual 2 Best
1 Australia Will Power Team Australia 58.890 57.405 57.405
2 France Sébastien Bourdais N/H/L Racing 58.376 57.653 57.653
3 United Kingdom Justin Wilson RSPORTS 59.216 57.533 57.533
4 Switzerland Neel Jani PKV Racing 59.354 57.753 57.753
5 Spain Oriol Servia Forsythe Racing 59.338 57.790 57.790
6 United States Graham Rahal N/H/L Racing 58.998 57.896 57.896
7 France Simon Pagenaud Team Australia 59.446 57.929 57.929
8 France Tristan Gommendy PKV Racing 1:00.348 58.026 58.026
9 Mexico Mario Dominguez Forsythe Racing 59.788 58.079 58.079
10 Brazil Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne Racing 59.575 58.169 58.169
11 Canada Alex Tagliani RSPORTS 59.269 58.261 58.261
12 United Kingdom Dan Clarke Minardi Team USA 1:00.365 58.355 58.355
13 Netherlands Robert Doornbos Minardi Team USA 59.940 58.569 58.569
14 New Zealand Matt Halliday Conquest Racing 59.747 58.577 58.577
15 United Kingdom Ryan Dalziel Pacific Coast Motorsports 59.746 58.835 58.835
16 Brazil Roberto Moreno Pacific Coast Motorsports - 59.231 59.231
17 United Kingdom Katherine Legge Dale Coyne Racing 1:00.603 59.257 59.257

Sébastien Bourdais originally took pole but was penalised for blocking Will Power. Roberto Moreno substituted for Alex Figge beginning on Saturday after Figge was unable to race the bumpy parking lot circuit with lingering back pain resulting from a crash at Long Beach the previous week.

Grid

Row Inside Outside
1 5 Australia Will Power 1 France Sébastien Bourdais
2 9 United Kingdom Justin Wilson 21 Switzerland Neel Jani
3 3 Spain Oriol Servia 2 United States Graham Rahal
4 15 France Simon Pagenaud 22 France Tristan Gommendy
5 7 Mexico Mario Dominguez 19 Brazil Bruno Junqueira
6 8 Canada Alex Tagliani 4 United Kingdom Dan Clarke
7 14 Netherlands Robert Doornbos 42 New Zealand Matt Halliday
8 28 Scotland Ryan Dalziel 29 Brazil Roberto Moreno
9 11 United Kingdom Katherine Legge
Cars stream into turn 1 on lap 1

Race

The race was won by Sébastien Bourdais, which moved him into the lead of the championship.

Pole sitter Will Power was passed by Sébastien Bourdais and Justin Wilson at the drop of the green flag. Bourdais short cut a chicane and was forced to drop back into 2nd behind Wilson. On lap 14 Bourdais regained the lead and built a long lead over Wilson. The first round of pit stops were done under a yellow caused by debris. Oriol Servia, substituting again for the injured Paul Tracy, left the pits in 2nd, while Bourdais' teammate Graham Rahal got out in 3rd. The top three remained static until lap 66 when Oriol Servia's green flag pit stop was balked by his teammate Mario Dominguez, dropping him all the way to 7th. When Bourdais pitted on lap 68, Tristan Gommendy took the lead by staying out, gambling on a long-shot fuel strategy win. When Gommendy's race ended at the entrance of pit lane with minutes remaining in the 1 hour, 45 minute timed race (all Champ Car races in the season were held as timed races that ran 1 hour, 45 minutes), Bourdais retook the lead and led the remainder of the race in front of teammate Rahal, who did not provide an undue amount of pressure. Robert Doornbos solidified his lead in the rookie standings with a 3rd-place finish, while Oriol Servia fought back from the pit stop mishap to a solid 4th-place finish.

Results

Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 1 France Sébastien Bourdais N/H/L Racing 93 1:45:32.136 2 33
2 2 United States Graham Rahal N/H/L Racing 93 +4.8 secs 6 27
3 14 Netherlands Robert Doornbos Minardi Team USA 93 +7.1 secs 13 26
4 3 Spain Oriol Servia Forsythe Racing 93 +8.7 secs 5 23
5 15 France Simon Pagenaud Team Australia 93 +9.5 secs 7 21
6 7 Mexico Mario Dominguez Forsythe Racing 93 +19.1 secs 9 19
7 19 Brazil Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne Racing 93 +19.1 secs 10 17
8 28 Scotland Ryan Dalziel Pacific Coast Motorsports 93 +20.3 secs 15 15
9 8 Canada Alex Tagliani RSPORTS 93 +25.1 secs 11 13
10 9 United Kingdom Justin Wilson RSPORTS 93 +28.5 secs 3 11
11 5 Australia Will Power Team Australia 92 + 1 Lap 1 11
12 29 Brazil Roberto Moreno Pacific Coast Motorsports 90 + 3 Laps 16 9
13 22 France Tristan Gommendy PKV Racing 86 Mechanical 8 8
14 42 New Zealand Matt Halliday Conquest Racing 77 + 16 Laps 14 7
15 21 Switzerland Neel Jani PKV Racing 67 Contact 4 6
16 11 United Kingdom Katherine Legge Dale Coyne Racing 67 Contact 17 5
17 4 United Kingdom Dan Clarke Minardi Team USA 67 Contact 12 4

Caution flags

Laps Cause
1 Yellow flag start
28-32 Debris
47-51 Moreno spin/stall
69-74 Jani/Legge/Clarke crash & Power/Dominguez crash

Notes

Laps Leader
1 Will Power
2-13 Justin Wilson
14-29 Sébastien Bourdais
30 Tristan Gommendy
31-68 Sébastien Bourdais
69-86 Tristan Gommendy
86-93 Sébastien Bourdais
 
Driver Laps led
Sébastien Bourdais 62
Tristan Gommendy 18
Justin Wilson 12
Will Power 1

Attendance

Race weekend attendance was 168,259 for the Houston edition of the Champ Car World Series in 2007. This represented a 31% increase in attendance over the previous year.[2]

References

  1. "2007 Grand Prix of Houston". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
  2. 2008 Grand Prix of Houston :: Press Release

External links

Previous race:
2007 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Champ Car World Series
2007 season
Next race:
2007 Mazda Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland

Previous race:
2006 Grand Prix of Houston
Grand Prix of Houston Next race:
2013 Shell-Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston
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