For the season opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
source: F1-Live.com
Picking up where he left off when he paced three
days of Spring Training testing at Sebring International Raceway, Newman/Haas
driver Sebastien Bourdais stormed to the top of the timesheets on Friday to take
pole for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, earning himself a guaranteed
front-row starting spot for the season opener of the 2003 Bridgestone Presents
The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford.
Bourdais recorded a top lap of 61.676 seconds (105.415mph) to put himself in
position to become the first driver since Nigel Mansell in 1993 to win in his
Champ Car debut.(Mansell won the 1993 Surfers Paradise event with Newman/Haas
Racing en route to the '93 series championship) The Frenchman vaulted to the top
of the charts early in the session, grasping the high rung on the ladder with
his fourth lap, before sitting on pit road for 15 minutes before going back out
with only 10 minutes remaining where he lowered his qualifying time event
further.
"I think we were not expecting such a good result," Sebastien said.
"Newman/Haas gave me an incredible car, I think. We didn't change a lot on the
baseline. The work we did with the car in Sebring was very good. We were up
there. The balance was immediately good. I've been able to get the confidence,
to push pretty hard straightaway. Once again, the experience of the F3000, with
having no pre-practice sessions, has been very helpful. That gave me the
opportunity to push really, really hard on the straightaway and to start to work
early. I don't know about tomorrow, but we did the first part of the job."