minarditeamusa
ROBERT DOORNBOS: “It was spectacular! What a great feeling to win! I am very happy for the team, and I feel that they deserve it, and I deserve it, and I couldn’t be happier. We have been fast all weekend and I knew we could win, but with the changing weather conditions it was very difficult. The circuit was changing so much, and everyone was fighting for positions, but we came out on top in the end and that’s all that matters. As for Sebastien’s comments about me, I’m not that concerned. Champ Car officials do not feel I did anything wrong, and I’m sure if they did, they would have penalized me, like they did in Cleveland. I respect the fact that the rules here are different and I stayed true to them. If Sebastien feels that he could have passed me, then he should have done it. Nothing can spoil this victory today, and I’m thrilled for all of my team, and especially glad to give this special birthday gift to my team owner Keith Wiggins. I think the rest of the Championship is going to be very tight, and this win today proves that we are a front-running team.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: “It is a little bit of a shame for the whole Newman-Haa-Lanigan team beca use we had a very good car today”, said Sébastien at the press conference. “But I made a mistake when I went into the gravel and I take full responsibility for it. I am just very disappointed that Robert Doornbos did not respect the Champ Car rules and blocked me every time I try to pass him. He should have been penalized for that behavior.”
WILL POWER: “Everyone in the pits took wets. The car was all right in the wet. I think it was a lot about driving because everybody had their dry set-ups on. We ended up third. The good thing about Champ Car is you just never give up. It’s great like that. You can almost go a lap down and then come back and finish on the podium. It’s just really, really good racing.”
JUSTIN WILSON: “It was an eventful race”, said Justin. “When Will Power stalled, that compromised my start quite dramatically and I had to let (Robert) Doornbos go by. I could see that Sebastien (Bourdais) had got a rolling start and I was hoping that the officials had seen it, but they didn’t penalise him. From then on it was just driving to the conditions. When it started raining we were on slicks and I managed to get past everyone. But as soon as we put the wets on we were really slow – we had no balance. We were just hanging on until it dried out a little bit on the last few laps. We were quicker then, but unfortunately it was too little, too late.”
NEEL JANI: “The race started okay for the Red Bull Gulfstream PKV Racing team in dry conditions,” Jani began. “The crew did a great job with the pit stops. We got good fuel mileage. Everything was going perfect. I thought we were on course for a podium finish. Then it started to rain. I managed to get into second place, but then I just couldn’t keep the pace in the rain anymore. I was sliding around and I fell place by place back. I had to fight really hard. It was unfortunate. The rain definitely cost us a podium because I could not go the speed anymore in the rain.”
