source:
lola-group.com
Newman Haas driver, Bruno Junqueira took his first win of the year at the
2.709-mile Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve track in Montreal on Sunday. The Brazilian
also significantly closed the gap on his team mate Sebastien Bourdais in the
title chase after the Frenchman was forced to retire. It was the 150th ChampCar
win in Lola's history.
Junqueira beat hometown favourite Patrick Carpentier's Forsythe Lola by six
seconds in front of over 50,000 fans to reduce the points deficit from 58 to 34
points in the points table. The Newman Haas driver led the final 25 laps after a
canny race that saw him track his pole sitting team mate - Bourdais and Herdez's
Mario Dominguez. When Bourdais was forced to stop after contact with RuSPORTS's
AJ Allmendinger, who in turn put himself out of contention after serving a
stop/go penalty for the collision, Bruno was in position to capitalise and bring
his Lola home for maximum points.
"I think the luck came to my side for once, and I'm quite happy for that," said
the jubilant Brazilian after the race. It now gives me a good position in the
championship. I'm never going to give up; I'll keep working very hard to try to
catch Sebastien for the championship. I think I can reverse it. Like four races
ago, I was leading. I had three bad races and he had three good ones, and he
passed me and opened a big gap. I hope I can get another three good races."
Bourdais was naturally disappointed and aggrieved after his elimination from the
race and was stinging in his criticism of Allmendinger, saying: "I am here to
win the championship; I'm not playing a game. This race was very important for
the whole team. To put the car on pole and lead the race only to be a victim of
what happened is a huge shame. I gave him room. He was obviously very angry to
act that way. This is the third time in four races we've been hit by somebody. "