First win on American soil for French ace
source: autosport.com
It took Sebastien Bourdais 68 laps to work his way into the lead of the
Cleveland Grand Prix, but once he got in front, the 24-year-old Frenchman was
unbeatable in the floodlit event.
Starting from his series-leading fourth pole of the season, Bourdais lost the
lead to CART championship leader Paul Tracy at the first turn. The two
Lola-Fords were rarely more than two seconds apart through three stints of
racing, but a short fuel strategy executed to perfection by the Newman/Haas
during the third round of pit stops allowed Bourdais to gain the edge over his
rival.
The young Frenchman pulled out an 11-second advantage, which allowed him to
maintain the advantage despite a longer final pit stop on Lap 94. Bourdais then
had to sweat out a couple of late-race dramas, including a bumping incident
while trying to lap Adrian Fernandez and a last-lap restart after a late
full-course yellow.
All that meant Bourdais' margin of victory was just 2.24 seconds over Tracy in a
race that he in truth dominated. Tracy was just able to hold off a challenge
from Bruno Junqueira on the final lap, while Patrick Carpentier took fourth
ahead of Mario Dominguez.