Montreal Race Weekend Thread (Spoiler)

[luke]

Round 9 of 14
Molson Indy Montreal
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - Montreal, Canada


Friday, August 26 - Sunday, August 28








www.molsonindy.com


Weekend schedule:

Practice 1
Aug 26, 10:15 am ET

Practice 2
Aug 26, 2:00 pm ET

Qualifying 1
Aug 26, 2:25 pm ET

Practice 3
Aug 27, 10:30 am ET -Race Director video Avalible

Practice 4
Aug 27, 2:00 pm ET -Race Director video Avalible

Qualifying 2
Aug 27, 2:25 pm ET -Race Director video Avalible

Warm-Up
Aug 28, 9:45 am ET

Race
Aug 28, 1:45 pm ET -Race Director video Avalible
(subject to change)




Weekend weather forcast:

Friday
79°F (26°C) | 66°F (19°C) Sunny

Saturday
80°F (27°C) | 63°F (17°C) Sunny

Sunday
80°F (27°C) | 65°F (18°C) 30% Chance of Showers



TV:

U.S. Race Live on NBC at 1:30 pm ET

U.K. Race Live on Eurosport at 6:45 pm BST

Canada: Saturday Qualifying on Global at 7:00 pm ET
Sunday race live on Global at 1:00 pm ET



Support series:


» Toyota Atlantic

» Trans-Am




Track length: 2.709 mile road course

First Champ Car race: 2002

Total Champ Car races: 3

Defending champion : Bruno Junquiera

[macdaddy]

From SpeedTV:

The 2005 Canadian Grand Prix polesitter was BAR’s Jenson Button, with a best lap of 1:15.217, while Champ Car’s fastest Montreal qualifier in ‘04 was Newman/Haas’ Sebastien Bourdais at 1:19.897.

Yet with the ‘05-spec Bridgestone tires and other developments making 2005 CCWS poles an average of half a second quicker than last year’s - it’s fair to expect that the Champ Car front row this weekend would comfortably make the field at this year’s Canadian GP, which had Patrick Friesacher’s Minardi as the slowest timed qualifier at 1:19.574.

It is important to notice, however, that F1 cars do not qualify on nearly-empty tanks this season the way Champ cars do. Still, considering Minardi’s circa $50-million budget could pay for perhaps half of Champ Car’s field, the comparison is intriguing…

[luke]

Two of the 2005 Champ Car World Series' most impressive performances came from a driver who was nowhere near a Ford-Lola the first half of the season. That driver is Rodolfo Lavin. Left standing when the sound-track to the off-season game of musical seats stopped, he returned to the series in San Jose and Denver with HVM Racing. All Lavin did was qualify twelfth in San Jose, and follow that up with a fifth place at Denver.

Link

[Liz]

I'm leaving tonight for Montreal (on the train) and can't wait. This is always a good experience and a great race. Bruno will be there too and I'm going to look for him and wish him good luck in getting back into the car in Mexico, which is his goal.a

[N I Tram]

Enjoy the event Liz, this one's usually quite something. The Minardi speed comparison made is interesting - once you add to that how close Minardi come to teams spending 10 times as much, it's a clear indication that motor racing can be very inefficient in using money, and cost-controlled series such as ChampCar can be a more even and exciting spectacle for it.

[icemachine]

I'm in Ottawa this weekend, Maybe I can leave the GF at the mall for a few hours and nip down to Montreal

[macdaddy]

First Practice:

01) 1:23.149 Bourdais (117.288 mph)
02) 1:23.528 Tracy
03) 1:23.533 Tagliani
04) 1:23.616 Dominguez
05) 1:23.760 Wilson
06) 1:23.762 Vasser
07) 1:23.775 da Matta
08) 1:23.836 Servia
09) 1:24.164 Allmendinger
10) 1:24.381 Philippe
11) 1:24.403 Ranger
12) 1:24.853 Wirdheim
13) 1:25.372 Lavin
14) 1:25.483 Glock
15) 1:25.615 Sperafico
16) 1:25.973 Hunter-Reay
17) 1:26.677 Bremer
18) 1:26.772 Marshall (3.623s off the pace)

[luke]

Also noticed Hunter-Reay is way down the order, he really has slipped off.

[macdaddy]

Results of Saturday Qualifying

The front three rows would be teammates!
H/Haas 1-2, Forsythe 3-4, PKV 5-6.

Bourdais narrowly clips Servia for front-row honours, by a mere 0.086s!

Hunter-Reay and Sperafico fail to put in times, because their cars were not ready after crash damage suffered earlier in the day.

[Jordi]

This is a track where Oriol has normally run well, I think it could be his best chance yet...

[luke]

I can't wait to tune into Race Director tommorrow. Montreal is one of my favourite tracks and could say a road course!

And looking back at the times I'm glad both PKV cars are up there but why is Allmendinger so far back?

[macdaddy]

The current forecast has rain beginning Saturday night and ending sometime Sunday afternoon.

[luke]

I hadn't realised before how much the cut the run to the final harpin.

[luke]

Qualifying has started!

[macdaddy]

Where did Oriol come from? Under a minute to go in qualifying, and suddenly he's P2!

N/Haas 1-2, RuSport 3-4, Forsythe 5,7.

Bourdais, Servia, Wilson, Allmendinger, Tracy, Tags, Dominguez.

Sizable gaps up near the front. Bourdais is 3/10ths quicker than Servia, who in turn is 1/4s up on Wilson. The N/Haas team seems to have everybody's measure.

Some rather large gaps near the bottom of the grid, too.

Bridgestone did not bring the option "reds" to Montreal, and Joe Barbiarri (sp) said that it was for "no specific reason". It seems that the "reds" will not be seen again until the season finale in Mexico City. But JoeB. went on to say that we can expect to see them at almost every event of 2006.

Race Director worked fine for me during final quals, but I could not get Live Timing. Every time I tried to access that board, I only got the final results from the preceding practice.

Now, if they get the overnight rain that's predicted, the track will be pretty "green" for the race. And I predict Tracy to make up at least two spots on the first lap.

[luke]

Originally Posted by macdaddy

Now, if they get the overnight rain that's predicted, the track will be pretty "green" for the race. And I predict Tracy to make up at least two spots on the first lap.

He sure needs to. But he knows what he has got to do knowing him, he'll do it. I would also expect him to fight hard if he is next to Seb, he needs to if he wants a chance of winning this year.

[macdaddy]

The storms that we're just now getting over with seem to be heading NE toward the Montreal area, and if they get anything near the rainfall that we did, the track will be mighty green indeed!

[macdaddy]

Here is a related thread on the F1 forum, comparing lap times between the two series.

[Kicking-back]

STARTING GRID


1. Sebastien Bourdais 1:20.396 (17th Career Pole)
Newman Haas
42nd Career start


2. Oriol Servia 1:20.698 (4th time starting 2nd)
Newman Haas
96th Career start


3. Justin Wilson 1:20.932 (5th time starting 3rd)
Rusport
24th Career start


4. AJ Allmendinger 1:20.954 (6th time starting 4th)
Rusport
24th Career start


5. Paul Tracy 1:21.009 (14th time starting 5th)
Forsythe Racing
233rd Career start


6. Alex Tagliani 1:21.160 (4th time starting 6th)
Team Australia/Walker racing
101st Career start


7. Mario Dominguez 1:21.600 (3rd time starting 7th)
Forsythe Racing
61st Career start


8. Cristiano da Matta 1:21.623 (6th time starting 8th)
PKV
89th Career start


9. Jimmy Vasser 1:21.794 (20th time starting 9th)
PKV
228th Career Start


10.Nelson Phillipe 1:21.893 (2nd time starting 10th)
Conquest
21st Career start


11.Timo Glock 1:22.066 (3rd time starting 11th)
Rocketsports
10th Career start


12.Rodolfo Lavin 1:22.262 (5th time starting 12th)
HVM
34th Career Start


13.Ryan Hunter-Reay 1:22.285 (1st time starting 13th)
Rocketsports
42nd Career start


14.Andrew Ranger 1:22.315 (2nd time starting 14th)
Conquest
10th Career Start


15.Bjorn Wirdheim 1:22.651 (2nd time starting 15th)
HVM
10th Career start


16.Ricardo Sperafico 1:22.917 (2nd time starting 16th)
Dale Coyne Racing
10th Career start


17.Ronnie Bremer 1:23.214 (1st time starting 17th)
Dale Coyne Racing
9th Career Start


18.Marcus Marshall 1:23.266 (7th time starting 18th)
Team Australia/Walker racing
10th Career start


editted by marcus , added career details

[luke]

Thanks for posting it Kicking-back!

[Adam43]

That was quite a change between sessions then (apart from pole). Little by little it gets closer to Bourdais title.

[luke]

It's funny since Long Beach he didn't have much to show but he was consistent and did what he had to do and finish top 5 whatever, then he had a hat trick of victories and Paul Tracy and others throughing it away. I think we are in a similar situation to last year.

[macdaddy]

Top-Five going into Montreal:
(Pole points awarded)

250 (-00) Bourdais
196 (-54) Tracy
183 (-67) Servia
179 (-71) Wilson

Looks like a lock, but "it ain't over till it's over"...

As for the rookies...

118 Glock
115 Bremer
098 Ranger
088 Wirdheim

[luke]

This is Bourdais' 17th career pole postion

I wonder if any Champ Car champions (4) will stick it into the F1 'Champions Wall' (final chicane)

[macdaddy]

I call it the "Villeneuve Wall".