I was fortunate enough that we had a restart right away after that. You know, I got off the line really well, used the 'push to pass', and got by Bruno on the restart. All in all, I mean, not where we wanted to be. We wanted to get that elusive fifth win, but we didn't. I think all in all, just a fantastic day for the series and a fantastic day for the city of Long Beach.
Q:
Congratulations. We are now joined by the winner of the 31st annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the defending Champ Car World Series champion from a season ago, driver of the #1 McDonald's Ford-Cosworth/Lola/
Bridgestone for Newman/Haas Racing,
Sebastien Bourdais. Sebastien led 37 laps on the day, earning the eleventh win of his Champ Car career, tying him for 18th with Cristiano da Matta on the all-time list. This is his 18th podium finish in just 33 career Champ Car starts. I don't have to do the math for you to tell you that better than half of his career starts have ended up with him here on the podium. Sebastien, you kind of tricked everybody with the qualifying performance, but it looks like you definitely had the set-up today.
Sebastien Bourdais:
I think we tricked ourselves. We were not expecting to be out of the top three. It was a long time it didn't happen to us, so it was quite a surprise. I thought I was going fast. It's been like that the whole weekend. And, for some reason, we are fast in practice, and for the qualifying it didn't seem to come to us, at least not very easily.
I had to overpush and did a lot of mistakes. As I said the first day, maybe it was just because I didn't practice enough during the off-season or something like that. But I definitely got a bit pumped up for the race and did one of the very best races of my career, went from P4 to win that race, passed PT and a lot of people. I'm very happy for that, and very happy for the McDonald's crew and very happy to bring home this win for Newman/Haas. It's been a long time here in Long Beach. As PT said, what a crowd, what an event. We definitely want to be back here no matter what it takes.
Q:
Sebastien turned the fastest lap of the day and also gained a championship point for gaining the most positions on the day. Therefore, he will leave here with a 34-29 lead over Paul Tracy. Sebastien, tell us about that lap 37 pass of Paul. You were right on him for a couple of laps and were able to get by...
SB:
I think I have to be pretty thankful to the Bridgestone alternate tyres. They came very fast. PT already did a few laps, so he had time to warm them up. I was just out of the pits. I was kind of worried that I couldn't keep up with him, and it was the opposite. The tyres came up so fast, I had a great run on him. I passed him. I think it's been the best pass over PT I've ever had. It doesn't happen very often to pass Paul, so I'm very happy about that. Definitely a great race and very exciting for me.
Q:
Congratulations. Our third place finisher on the day, driver of the #2 PacifiCare Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone for Newman/Haas Racing, Bruno Junqueira. This is Bruno's seventh consecutive podium finish dating back to last season, making him the eleventh driver in Champ Car history to string as many as seven consecutive podium finishes together. Bruno, you finished third, you had a strong race, ran up front all day today. How do you feel about the way it went?
Bruno Junqueira:
I felt it was okay. The PacifiCare car started really well in the race. I was just following Tracy, saving fuel. Then I had a chance to pass him, and was still saving fuel. I was pulling away from Dominguez, Tracy was just right behind me, but I knew it was more important to save fuel. After the first yellow flag, I didn't use the 'push to pass', and Tracy got a run on me and he passed me. I think I got a lot of marbles on the tyres when I came outside on turn one. My car never handled as well until the end of the stint, so I had to burn a lot of fuel to keep up with PT. The car lost a lot of grip, so couldn't go as further as Sebastien might have did. But I had a good lead on Mario and Sebastien.
