Sebastien Bourdais avoided mistakes in a race filled with them and pulled away for his fifth win of the season in the San Jose Grand Prix and added to his Champ Car World Series points lead on Sunday.
The Frenchman, well on the way to what would be his third straight title in Champ Car, had not won since starting the season with four consecutive victories. But Bourdais' Newman/Haas Racing Lola was a dominating force this weekend, winning the pole and leading for 69 of the 97 laps.
Paul Tracy took the lead at the start, but was later penalized for jumping the green flag. That put Bourdais back on top until he pitted on lap 54, when he fell to third behind Dutch driver Charles Zwolsman and Spain's Oriol Servia, both on a different pit strategy.
PHOTO: AP
Bourdais remained patient for a while, knowing that both the drivers ahead of him would have to pit again. But, after Servia moved with a pass on a restart on lap 60, Bourdais got past Zwolsman for second on lap 73.
He regained the lead for good when Servia pitted on lap 80, then pulled away for the easy victory -- leaving runner-up Cristiano da Matta of Brazil 6.686 seconds behind at the end.
The runner-up finish for da Matta, a former series champion, was his best this season. He was followed by Justin Wilson of England, 20-year-old Nelson Philippe of France, and Mario Dominguez of Mexico.
PHOTO: AP
Wilson, who crashed in practice on Saturday and started 12th, managed to keep Bourdais at least in sight in the championship. He trails by 31 points heading to Denver on Aug. 13.
As Bourdais predicted, there were plenty of mistakes on the tight, bumpy 2.3km, seven-turn city street course, but he was able to stay away from trouble on the way to the 21st victory of his four-year career.
Tracy, another former series champion, started second in the race but ran into several problems.
After the yellow flag came out for a ragged false start on the first lap, Tracy jumped the green flag on lap two, getting past Bourdais before the flagstand. Champ Car officials quickly put him back to second as the caution flag waved on lap three when Australian rookie Will Power ran into the rear of Brazil's Bruno Junqueira, who in turn hit Servia.
Tracy said he fought a brake problem all day and, after sliding into a runoff area on lap 52, Tracy drove back onto the track right in front of Alex Tagliani, taking both of them out.
Tagliani stalked out of his car and walked down pit lane to confront Tracy. Still wearing his helmet, Tagliani grabbed Tracy's uniform at the chest with both hands and appeared to be yelling at his fellow Canadian, who was carrying his helmet. Tagliani then turned away and walked several steps before again turning to confront Tracy.
This time it wound up in some pushing and wild punches thrown by both men before bystanders quickly pulled them apart. Tagliani then stalked off.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but