Bourdais making his mark in Superleague, wins race one at Monza

Former CART/Champ Car champion and Formula One driver Sébastien Bourdais won again in his second weekend competing in the Superleague Formula series. Driving for the Seville FC soccer team-backed outfit, the Frenchman won the opening race at Monza in Italy after outbraking pole sitter Esteban Guerrieri into the first chicane after the rolling start.

Bourdais later lost the lead during pit stops, but retook it by passing Maria de Villota in the fast parabolica corner at the end of the circuit. Guerrieri finished second, followed by Formula Two driver Julien Jousse. Championship points leader Adrian Valles finished fourth.

“It was a good race. The start was in my favor because for some reason, the pole is on the left [and dirty side of the track]," Bourdais said. "That sounds like a big issue for the pole sitter but I was very happy about it! We were side by side at the start, but I was on the inside so I made it stick.

"I was pretty happy with the car, although we had a bit too much understeer. Then, on the second to last lap, I made a bit of a mistake at Ascari trying to extend the gap. [Guerrieri] closed up and since I had used my push-to-pass, he had the advantage.”

It has not taken long for Bourdais to vault to the sharp end of the Superleague field. He won the "Super Final" race during his first weekend in the series at Estoril in Portugal at the beginning of September. In race two at Monza, he started last because of an inverted grid structure, yet he stormed to a third-place finish, scoring 90 out of a possible 100 points for the weekend.

“For sure, the second race was going to be more difficult to win," he said. "If someone had told me we would have finished third after starting dead last, I would have said you are kidding! We just took it easy to start with as I thought there would be a few tangles and kept my push-to-passes. I thought I had a puncture on a couple of occasions because my teammate actually ran into the back of me when the other guys short-cutted the chicane. Overall, I am very happy. The car was pretty solid and the team did a good job. We made no mistakes, and that's what won us the event.”

Pedro Petiz won the race, with Craig Dolby second. Guerrieri was fourth and Valles fifth. Valles leads Dolby by 59 points with just one weekend remaining in the season, at the Jarama circuit in Spain on Nov. 7-8.

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