2007 Gran Premio Tecate

  2007 Mexico City

Race details
Race 14 of 14 in the 2007 Champ Car season
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez Track Layout
Date	November 11, 2007
Official name	Gran Premio Tecate Presented by Banamex
Location	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez Mexico City, Mexico
Course	Permanent Road Course 2.774 mi / 4.470 km
Distance	64 laps, 177.536 mi / 286.080 km
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Will Power	Team Australia
Time	1:23.558
Fastest lap
Driver	Robert Doornbos	Minardi Team USA
Time	1:24.713 (on lap 8 of 64)
Podium
First	Sébastien Bourdais	N/H/L Racing
Second	Will Power	Team Australia
Third	Oriol Servià	PKV Racing

The 2007 Gran Premio Tecate was the fourteenth and final round of the 2007 Champ Car World Series season. It was held on November 11, 2007 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, Mexico. The race was won by Sébastien Bourdais in his last Champ Car race before joining the Scuderia Toro Rosso team in Formula One. With the merger of the Indy Racing League and Champ Car World Series in 2008 it would turn out to be the final event run under the Champ Car banner.

Qualifying results

Pos	Nat	Name	Team	Qual 1	Qual 2	Best
1		Will Power	Team Australia	1:25.199	1:23.558	1:23.558
2		Sébastien Bourdais	N/H/L Racing	1:24.698	1:24.901	1:24.698
3		Robert Doornbos	Minardi Team USA	1:26.220	1:24.152	1:24.152
4		Oriol Servià	PKV Racing	1:25.436	1:24.324	1:24.324
5		Justin Wilson	RuSPORT	1:24.825	1:24.365	1:24.365
6		Simon Pagenaud	Team Australia	1:25.952	1:24.394	1:24.394
7		Graham Rahal	N/H/L Racing	1:25.889	1:24.515	1:24.515
8		Paul Tracy	Forsythe Racing	1:26.130	1:24.608	1:24.608
9		Dan Clarke	Minardi Team USA	1:26.617	1:24.764	1:24.764
10		David Martínez	Forsythe Racing	1:26.056	1:24.888	1:24.888
11		Neel Jani	PKV Racing	1:26.156	1:24.929	1:24.929
12		Bruno Junqueira	Dale Coyne Racing	1:26.190	1:25.361	1:25.361
13		Nelson Philippe	Conquest Racing	1:26.952	1:25.405	1:25.405
14		Alex Tagliani	Rocketsports Racing	1:27.277	1:25.446	1:25.446
15		Mario Domínguez	Pacific Coast Motorsports	1:26.181	1:25.602	1:25.602
16		Katherine Legge	Dale Coyne Racing	1:28.069	1:26.277	1:26.277
17		Alex Figge	Pacific Coast Motorsports	1:27.230	1:26.582	1:26.582

24 hours after Sébastien Bourdais established a new track record in Friday qualifying at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, seven drivers were able to improve on that mark during Saturday's session. But Will Power was far and away the fastest of the fast on the day, finishing .594 seconds ahead of his closest competitor, Robert Doornbos, thus clinching his fifth pole position of the year and second in succession. Power's feat was all the more notable as he is driving with a broken wrist suffered in his home race three weeks ago in Australia. Bourdais was unable to better his Friday time, but will start the race next to Will Power on the front row of the grid.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Sébastien Bourdais	N/H/L Racing	64	1:45:02.885	2	32
2	5	Will Power	Team Australia	64	+1.906	1	29
3	22	Oriol Servià	PKV Racing	64	+3.364	4	25
4	2	Graham Rahal	N/H/L Racing	64	+7.346	7	23
5	3	Paul Tracy	Forsythe Racing	64	+8.593	8	21
6	15	Simon Pagenaud	Team Australia	64	+9.638	6	19
7	19	Bruno Junqueira	Dale Coyne Racing	64	+15.823	12	17
8	28	Mario Domínguez	Pacific Coast Motorsports	64	+16.077	15	16
9	21	Neel Jani	PKV Racing	64	+16.199	11	13
10	9	Justin Wilson	RuSPORT	64	+16.954	5	11
11	29	Alex Figge	Pacific Coast Motorsports	63	+ 1 Lap	17	10
12	34	Nelson Philippe	Conquest Racing	63	+ 1 Lap	13	9
13	8	Alex Tagliani	Rocketsports Racing	62	+ 2 Laps	14	8
14	7	David Martínez	Forsythe Racing	58	+ 6 Laps	10	7
15	19	Katherine Legge	Dale Coyne Racing	56	Mechanical	16	6
16	14	Robert Doornbos	Minardi Team USA	12	Mechanical	3	6
17	4	Dan Clarke	Minardi Team USA	0	Mechanical	9	4

The final race of the season got off to a ragged start as Oriol Servià, Nelson Philippe, and Alex Tagliani all stalled on the grid. At the front, Will Power held off Sébastien Bourdais at the start and took charge of the field behind the pace car. A potential fight for second place in the championship standings between Justin Wilson and Robert Doornbos was blunted when Doornbos' car developed a clutch problem. Doornbos' mechanics valiantly worked to fix the problem in the hopes of securing the point for fastest lap, and after 51 minutes of work, Doornbos did exactly that, securing his third place in the championship over Will Power.

At the front of the race Bourdais was working with a bit of a disadvantage for the race because he and teammate Graham Rahal were docked 22 seconds off the allotted 75 seconds of Power-to-Pass time after they laid rubber down on their grid spots making practice starts during the Sunday morning session. But Bourdais was able to get the power down coming out of the Peraltada corner before Power could. This slight handling difference gave Bourdais a critical speed advantage at the end of the long main straight. Bourdais easily passed Power on the main straight on lap 24 and then held off the Australian for the rest of the race, even after a late race yellow flag tightened up the field.

Bourdais' victory in his final Champ Car race before heading off to Formula One for the 2008 season was his 31st overall, putting him into a tie for 6th on the all-time Champ Car victory list with Paul Tracy and Al Unser, Jr.

Highlighting the race behind the Bourdais and Power was the performance of Oriol Servià who recovered from the stall on the grid and fought through the entire field all the way to third place. His performance allowed him to leapfrog from ninth to sixth place in the final championship standings.

Caution flags

Notes

• New Track Record: Will Power: 1:23.558 (Qualification Session #2)
• New Race Lap Record: Robert Doornbos: 1:24.713
• New Race Record: Sébastien Bourdais: 1:45:02.885
• Average Speed: 101.403 mph

External links

• Full Weekend Times & Results