Sebastien Bourdais demolishes rivals in qualifying at Road America Sebastien Bourdais demolishes rivals in qualifying at Road America, the Frenchman 1.5secs faster than his closest competitor. The Frenchman 1.5secs faster than his closest competitor. An outstanding lap some 1.5secs quicker than his nearest rival has earned Sebastien Bourdais his 29th Champ Car World Series pole position at Road America and one that arguably proves his career best. Already the driver to beat after demolishing his rivals by eight tenths in provisional qualifying, a gearbox change had raised the question as to whether or not he would even appear in the final qualifying session to cement his spot. Nonetheless, while his provisional marker would have still earned him a clear pole position, the Frenchman still found a remarkable seven tenths more to place him significantly out of reach for his shell shocked rivals. "I'm just very, very happy that the McDonald's car was super fast again. It was very consistent for us. To be honest, we haven't changed anything on the car since yesterday." Things further down the order were rather more mixed, the changing conditions meaning some drivers were able to find improvement, where as a handful of those who starred on the Friday found themselves tumbling down the timesheets. Will Power was a case point, the Australian just ninth quickest in the session but nonetheless maintaining his spot on the front row thanks to his strong provisional effort. Still, he will have to contend with championship rival Robert Doornbos in third, the Dutchman proving one of those to find an improvement over the course of the day. Indeed, four drivers in all managed to find the speed needed to split Power and Friday's third place runner Neel Jani, with Graham Rahal, Bruno Junqueira and Alex Tagliani all slotting in between. It was a particularly strong result for Junqueira given he was only 14th fastest in provisional qualifying. Jani slipped to seventh on the grid, just ahead of Dan Clarke and Justin Wilson in eighth and tenth, two more drivers who failed to improve on his first attempt. They were split by Jan Heylen in the Conquest Racing car, the Belgian sixth fastest in final qualifying to move up to ninth overall. French duo Tristan Gommendy and Simon Pagenaud got the better of Ryan Dalziel in 13th, the Scot sadly dropping from sixth position to the lower end of the field after being unable to improve. Still, he remains ahead of Forsythe duo Oriol Servia in 14th and Paul Tracy in 16th, the former unable to set a time and the latter losing his best lap after causing a red flag. Katherine Legge brought up the rear, a somewhat alarming 5.4secs off Bourdais pace as she desperately struggles to find some speed in her Dale Coyne Racing car.
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