'Slow' Servia Happy with Second
Newman/Haas Racing's stand-in driver Oriol Servia has no regrets about losing his first Champ Car race win to Justin Wilson in Toronto this afternoon
Servia has now started 90 Champ Car races without a victory. He has not won a race of any kind since he competed in French F3 in 1997. Even when he became Indy Lights Champion in 1999, he took the title without winning a single race.
The Spaniard hit the front in Toronto after Paul Tracy retired and was leading with just 11 laps to go when Wilson usurped him with a brave move down the inside at turn three.
Servia was content with second place, as he accepted that he wasn't quick enough to resist the charging Wilson.
"Looking at the fastest laps, I see that Justin was really fast," said Servia. "I mean, he's a second clear of me.
"I was actually slow the whole race. Under braking and at the apex of turn three was my weak point. It's not where you want to have a weak point around this track because it is almost the only place to overtake.
"So I'm just happy to keep adding points. I just had three podiums in four races. It cannot get much better. With every session we are one step closer to the win. If it's one more step (to victory), I guess it must be at the next race!"
Servia said that he hadn't completely given up hope of winning the race after Wilson took the lead, as he knew that the Englishman had used his full allocation of 'push-to-pass' power, whereas he still had extra boost available. Had the race been restarted after the yellow for AJ Allmendinger and Mario Dominguez's heavy collision, Servia reckoned he might have had a chance of repassing Wilson.
"I knew he had no more push-to-pass and there were still many laps to go," he said. "The yellow was just what I really wanted. Unfortunately we didn't get any restarts so I didn't get to use my shot of push-to-pass.
"Anyway, I think he (Wilson) also deserved the win."
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