The Honda Racing F1 Team picked up two more World Championship points when Rubens Barrichello finished seventh in a dramatic Canadian Grand Prix. Rubens survived an incident-filled race in Montreal to finish seventh. Barrichello drove a tenacious race from start-to-finish.
“I’m pleased with the two points today,” said Rubens, “particularly as we thought our chances of a points finish were slim when we started the weekend. It was a very tough race and I have not been feeling well since yesterday due to a cold, which made it an even tougher physical challenge. “Yesterday I didn’t know if I was going to be well enough to race, so all things considered we did a good job today and I'm pleased to keep up the points-scoring momentum from Monaco."
Coming away from Canada, Team Principal Ross Brawn said: “We always knew this was going to be a tough race for us but we made the best of the opportunities and came away with more points. That is the approach we need to maintain. We are heading to Barcelona next week ahead of the French Grand Prix (22 June) in Magny-Cours, where the higher downforce characteristics of this track and potentially high temperatures will suit our car better.”
Robert Kubica achieved his first Formula One victory on the Montreal circuit. Kubica didn’t put a foot wrong as he led home team mate Nick Heidfeld to record his, Poland’s and BMW Sauber’s maiden win.
Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s (TCGR) Scott Dixon started from pole, led 58 of 228 laps and claimed his third win of the season at Texas Motor Speedway Saturday night. The race ended under caution after Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay made contact while battling behind Dixon for second place with five laps remaining. Dixon was a contender from the drop of the green flag in the No.9 Target car, running in the top-three for the majority of the event. Flawless pit work again was the theme for the Target team as Dixon was able to stay out front and survive eight caution periods for 52 laps. The turning point of the race came when he passed Andretti on lap 222 – just before Andretti and Hunter-Reay tangled and brought the race to its conclusion under the yellow flag.
Results from Texas
1. Scott Dixon, No.9 Target Honda Dallara 2. Helio Castroneves, No.3 Honda Dallara 3. Ryan Briscoe, No.6 Honda Dallara 4. Dan Wheldon, No.10 Target Honda Dallara
Terry Blount of ESPN thinks...the IndyCar Series needs to take a hint from NASCAR on this one and think about a green-white-checkered overtime finish.
"I was thinking about that," said Helio Castroneves, who finished second. "I definitely had the car to make something happen. But we can't compare ourselves to what NASCAR does. It would be a mess."
If ever a driver was due for luck, it was Ryan Briscoe. Over the last two weeks, he hasn't hesitated cashing in. After an early season of bad breaks, culminating at the Indianapolis 500 with his now infamous contact with Danica Patrick while exiting the pits (which knocked them both out of the race), Briscoe was in desperate need of something positive to happen. His racing fate changed June 1 at The Milwaukee Mile when he won his first-ever IndyCar Series race. Briscoe finishes third in Fort Worth.
Dixon's teammate Dan Wheldon rebounded from a practice accident in the No.10 Polaroid car, made up seven positions on a sore ankle and finished fourth. Wheldon’s weekend started with a practice crash on Friday which sent him into the turn four wall and eliminated the No.10 team’s primary car. The team rallied to prepare the backup car for qualifying and Wheldon came from the infield care center to qualify the car 11th. Wheldon had moved up to fourth by just lap 11 but had to restart near the rear of the field after Briscoe stopped in his pit stall under yellow. Briscoe would serve a penalty for the incident and Wheldon managed to rebound up through the field to finish fourth.
Today, he discusses what makes Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon formidable drivers.
You never realize at the time when you're involved with race drivers the impact they have on each other. They don't realize it. We, as team members, don't realize it. It's something we look back on and say, 'Wow! That was special to be involved in.' I really feel that what we're seeing today are two race drivers who at this point in their careers have intersected very well.
Their experience level, what they're trying to achieve, what the team is able to help them achieve is blending together very well. It happens over and over again in racing when two teammates have helped each other accelerate to the front. Right now, Dan and Scott are at the right point in their careers to truly be able to help each other and the team is helping them.
It was very evident on Pole Day, but it's been evident since the beginning of the season. When a race driver of the caliber of Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon are able to have the experience that they have to utilize the resource, then you can get the most out of the car. Everybody is supposed to have the same cars, so it comes down to the team being able to tune the car for the drivers.
Rubens Barrichello set fast time in Tuesday's testing besting the likes of Felippe Masa, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. However, Alonso was back on top on Wednesday and Barrichello was not in the top five. Still is it possible Honda might actually be competitive this weekend? It sure would be a welcoming sight.
Honda’s Rubens Barrichello led the way in Barcelona on Tuesday, as testing continued at the Circuit de Catalunya. Running Bridgestone’s experimental slick tyres, Barrichello was close to a second faster than Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella, also on slicks. The Brazilian covered 79 laps during the course of the day, as he focused on evaluating development parts for the RA108.
“I tested the new 2009 slick tyres here today (Tuesday) - which was the reason for my fastest lap - but we were also much quicker on the 2008 grooved rubber too,” he explained. “The best lap we did here in February was a 1min 22.3s and now we are at 1min 20.7s, so we're really moving forward.”
Renault’s Fernando Alonso topped the timesheets as this week’s multi-team test at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya continued on Wednesday. Alonso’s best, a 1m 18.483s lap, was set on Bridgestone’s 2009 slick tyres and put the Spaniard almost a second ahead of former sparring partner Michael Schumacher, who returned to the cockpit for Ferrari.
“The day has been good and I was happy with the developments to the car,” Alonso said. “But we still need to keep improving because it seems that our competitors have also improved and so it is still difficult to say how we really compare with them. We have to wait until next week to get a full picture of where we stand. It was fun to try the slick tyres, which gave very good grip.”
Schumacher, meanwhile, took charge of Ferrari’s test programme for the day.
Barrichello was sixth on Wednesday.
Though Rubens did not mention it, his Honda is sporting a radical new front wing this weekend.
SONOMA, Calif. (Aug. 26, 2007) - Canadian Club driver Dario Franchitti finished third in Sunday's Motorola Indy 300 at Infineon Raceway. Franchitti now trails Scott Dixon by four points in the IndyCar Series championship. Team 7-Eleven driver Tony Kanaan is in third, trailing Franchitti by 58 points.
Dario Franchitti, #27 Canadian Club Dallara/Honda/Firestone “The day was going really well for the Canadian Club team until Marco (Andretti) and I got together in Turn 1. Tony (Kanaan) and I had a similar situation on the stop before that and Tony opened up the door and gave me the room. I really want to look at it and talk to Marco. We're teammates. We look after each other and that shouldn't happen. I'm going to talk with him, look at the video and we'll see from there.”
For more of the officially cleansed recap of Dario's race on Sundaywritten by andrettigreen.com see...
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