MONTREAL, 26 August 2003 — Mexico’s Michel Jourdain grabbed his second CART win of the season at the Montreal CART Grand Prix on Sunday, beating Spaniard Oriol Servia by 1.277 seconds. Canada’s Pat Carpentier finished third. The top three were all driving Lola Ford-Cosworth racers. But it was a bitterly disappointing day for polesitter, Alex Tagliani, a native of Montreal, who opened up a gap of about five seconds over Servia in the early stages until he had to make mandatory pit stops.
His own Lola Ford-Cosworth failed to achieve the mileage of his rivals and he lost time in a lengthy refueling stop, as well as spinning briefly off the track.
Jourdain, who went into the pits on lap 60 needed little more than half the time for a partial tank full that put him back on the circuit ahead of Tagliani.
Jourdain, who took the lead on lap 66 of the 75 lap race and was never seriously challenged, said his Team Rahal tactics were to save fuel because he could not otherwise keep up with Tagliani’s pace.
Tagliani went off the track trying to overtake compatriot and CART points leader, Paul Tracy, and although he recovered he lost the chance of his first CART win.
Tracy, who finished sixth, has a 28-point lead over Brazil’s Bruno Junqueira, who finished out of the points. Jourdain lies third with five races to go.
Alonso’s Victory Blows Championship Race Wide Open
When Fernando Alonso took the checkered flag at the Hungaroring to become the youngest ever driver to win a Formula One race, he may also have helped precipitate the end of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari’s dominance of the sport.
Alonso, who turned 22 on July 29, broke Bruce McLaren’s 44-year old record. The New Zealander was 22 years and 104 days old when he won the United States Grand Prix. More importantly, the 22-year-old Spaniard’s victory makes the race for the championship even closer, with just two points now covering the top three drivers.
Ferrari’s Schumacher still leads the standings with 72 points, one ahead of Williams-BMW’s Juan Pablo Montoya and two ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in a McLaren-Mercedes.
Raikkonen and Montoya finished second and third respectively behind Alonso with five-time world champion Schumacher trailing in eighth having suffered the added indignity of being lapped by the race winner. Italian media was quick to press the panic button following Schumacher’s lowly placing and teammate Rubens Barrichello’s dramatic crash on the 20th lap that saw the Brazilian’s Ferrari lose it’s left back wheel to send his car hurtling toward the tire wall.
Luckily, he was not injured in the collision. “It can’t get any worse,” wrote La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Ferrari has had to take a big, and in some ways fatal hit.”
The Corriere della Sera also refused to pull any punches, calling it Schumacher’s “black day”.
“A terrible result. Ferrari are now in crisis,” said the paper. “Such a collapse wasn’t expected. Alonso is the future king.”
Where Alonso is already been looked at as the long-term heir to Schumacher’s crown, Montoya has replaced the German as favorite to become world champion this season.
Ferrari team chief Jean Todt admitted yesterday the team could not afford any more mistakes if they were to remain their Formula One world crown.
Ferrari lost their position in the constructors’ championship to Williams. Ferrari has picked up just three points from a possible 36 in the last two races and Todt said he had expected better in Hungary.
“To take the last two races, it’s a terrible disappointment,” said Todt, who enjoyed unprecedented dominance with Ferrari last year. “But the past four years have been a fantastic achievement so you have to judge the whole thing.
