Tracy: Mistake Could Cost Title

The Canadian was leading by ten seconds on lap 63 when he clipped the wall on the inside of Turn Three and ploughed straight on into the outside wall, terminally damaging his Forsythe Championship Racing Lola.

He thereby handed the win to arch-rival Sebastien Bourdais on a day when he was on course to make inroads into the Frenchman's Championship lead.

Instead, Bourdais' advantage swelled from 26 to 52 points, and with just five races remaining Tracy's chances of reclaiming the crown he won in 2003 now look remote.

"The car was great...I basically just handed the Championship to Sebastien," Tracy said bluntly. "It's devastating for the whole team. We'll just have to come back next week in Montreal and try to win there; that's all we can do."

Tracy shouldered the blame for the accident, admitting that he had got impatient after being unable to lap rookie Timo Glock, who was circulating at a comparable speed a second or so ahead.

"I was sitting behind Glock, the blue ('move over') flags were flying every lap and I was getting frustrated," Tracy said.

"They told me I had to get closer to him so I was pressing harder and I brushed the inside wall, just barely touched it, and it threw me across the track right into the (outside) wall."