Maiden Win for Servia in Montreal
Oriol Servia finally claimed his maiden Champ Car victory in his 95th career start in Montreal this afternoon, out-duelling rookie Timo Glock in a grandstand finish
What had been a largely processional race suddenly sprang to life with 20 laps remaining, when a full-course yellow bunched up the field and set up a thrilling dogfight all the way to the chequered flag.
Glock, who had moved into contention thanks to pitting out of sequence with the front-runners, came within an ace of pulling off a shock victory for the beleaguered Rocketsports team.
The young German managed to fend off a pair of banzai passing attempts by Servia in the closing stages, but race director Tony Cotman judged that he had short-cut the track to do so in the second of those instances and instructed him to allow Servia back past.
Glock duly obliged midway round the final lap and - having used his full allotment of push-to-pass power - was unable to counter-attack on the back straight.
Servia held his nerve in the final braking zone and crossed the finish line exactly one second clear of Glock.
"It's just fantastic," said an elated Servia, whose win promoted him to second place in the points standings ahead of Paul Tracy. "I've been close so many times and today it finally came right."
Glock had mixed feelings about his runner-up finish: "The second place is good for me and the team, but it's obviously disappointing when you have to give up the win, especially because my car was unbelievable today."
Justin Wilson came home third for RuSPORT after challenging for the lead for much of the afternoon. The Briton outbraked Servia for second in the early stages only for the Newman/Haas driver to redress the balance with a last-of-the-late-brakers manoeuvre at the final chicane on lap 64.
Sebastien Bourdais finished a disappointed fourth after starting from pole and dominating the first three-quarters of the race. The Frenchman shook off early pressure from Wilson and appeared to be cruising towards his fourth successive win until his final pit visit, when a fumbled wheel change cost him precious seconds.
The top four were blanketed by just 1.6 seconds as they crossed the finish line, bringing the typically enthusiastic Quebec crowd to its feet.
They may not have had a home win to cheer but Alex Tagliani upheld local pride with fifth place after a spirited drive in his Team Australia entry.
PKV Racing teammates Cristiano da Matta and Jimmy Vasser soldiered on to sixth and seventh places ahead of Tracy and AJ Allmendinger.
Tracy was lying fourth when he locked up his brakes coming into his pit stall on his final stop and collected a crew member. The Canadian's second unforced error in as many races has effectively extinguished his hopes of reclaiming the title he won in 2003.
Allmendinger also looked set for a top five finish and was following in Tracy's wheel tracks when a piece of debris from the crashed car of Ricardo Sperafico flew into his path and cut his left-front tyre. Allmendinger hobbled round for a replacement only to be given a drive-through penalty for entering a 'closed' pit lane under a full-course yellow.
Mario Dominguez rounded out the top ten in the second Forsythe Racing entry.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Oriol Servia Newman Haas 1h 59:10.516 2. Timo Glock Rocketsports + 1.000 3. Justin Wilson RuSPORT + 1.416 4. Sebastien Bourdais Newman Haas + 1.637 5. Alex Tagliani Team Australia + 3.221 6. Cristiano da Matta PKV + 4.452 7. Jimmy Vasser PKV + 5.311 8. Paul Tracy Forsythe Championship + 6.672 9. A.J. Allmendinger RuSPORT + 7.213 10. Mario Dominguez Forsythe Championship + 7.678 11. Andrew Ranger Mi-Jack Conquest + 12.614 12. Ryan Hunter-Reay Rocketsports + 14.154 13. Bjorn Wirdheim HVM, Inc. + 16.104 14. Rodolfo Lavin HVM, Inc. + 16.975 15. Nelson Philippe Mi-Jack Conquest + 45.359 16. Marcus Marshall Team Australia + 1 lap 17. Ronnie Bremer Dale Coyne + 1 lap 18. Ricardo Sperafico Dale Coyne + 24 laps Fastest lap: Sebastien Bourdais, 1:21.667 on lap 40
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