2007 Grand Prix of Houston
| Race details | |
|---|---|
| Race 3 of 14 in the 2007 Champ Car season | |
| File:Route for the Grand Prix of Houston.svg | |
| Date | April 22, 2007 |
| Official name | Grand Prix of Houston |
| Location | JAGFlo Speedway at Reliant Park Houston, Texas, United States |
| Course | Temporary street circuit 1.683[1] mi / 2.709 km |
| Distance | 93 laps 156.519 mi / 251.893 km |
| Weather | Cloudy with temperatures reaching up to 80.1 °F (26.7 °C); wind speeds approaching 14 miles per hour (23 km/h)[2] |
| Pole position | |
| Driver | Australia Will Power (Team Australia) |
| Time | 57.405 |
| Fastest lap | |
| Driver | France Sébastien Bourdais (N/H/L Racing) |
| Time | 58.018 (on lap 93 of 93) |
| Podium | |
| First | France Sébastien Bourdais (N/H/L Racing) |
| Second | United States Graham Rahal (N/H/L Racing) |
| Third | Netherlands Robert Doornbos (Minardi Team USA) |
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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
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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
[edit | edit source]| Row | Inside | Outside | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Australia Will Power | 1 | France Sébastien Bourdais |
| 2 | 9 | United Kingdom Justin Wilson | 21 | Switzerland Neel Jani |
| 3 | 3 | Error creating thumbnail: Oriol Servia | 2 | United States Graham Rahal |
| 4 | 15 | France Simon Pagenaud | 22 | France Tristan Gommendy |
| 5 | 7 | Mexico Mario Domínguez | 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 | ||
Race
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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 Domínguez, 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
[edit | edit source]Caution flags
[edit | edit source]| Laps | Cause |
|---|---|
| 1 | Yellow flag start |
| 28-32 | Debris |
| 47-51 | Moreno spin/stall |
| 69-74 | Jani/Legge/Clarke crash & Power/Domínguez crash |
Notes
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Championship standings after the race
[edit | edit source]- Drivers' Championship standings
| Pos | Driver | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| File:1uparrow green.svg 2 | 1 | France Sébastien Bourdais | 73 |
| File:1downarrow red.svg 1 | 2 | Australia Will Power | 70 |
| File:1uparrow green.svg 2 | 3 | Netherlands Robert Doornbos | 61 |
| File:1downarrow red.svg 2 | 4 | Canada Alex Tagliani | 57 |
| File:1downarrow red.svg 1 | 5 | Brazil Bruno Junqueira | 53 |
- Note: Only the top five positions are included.
Attendance
[edit | edit source]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.[3]
References
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External links
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