Sebring, 1° giorno: c'è la Panoz, ma il leader è sempre Bourdais

E' stata Katherine Legge ad aprire la nuova era della Champ Car. La ragazza inglese è infatti stata la prima a entrare in pista al volante della nuova Panoz DP01 gestita dal team Coyne, la monoposto che ha sostituito la Lola, nel primo giorno di test collettivi a Sebring (pista divisa con la American Le Mans Series). Cambia la vettura, ma non il pilota più veloce della categoria: Sebastien Bourdais ha infatti segnato il tempo migliore in 51"024 ed ha preceduto il sorprendente Neel Jani, con la Panoz della PKV. La seconda vettura PKV è stata occasionalmente guidata da Jimmy Vasser, tra i proprietari della squadra, che ha raccolto dati telemetrici. Terza prestazione per Paul Tracy del team Forsythe, che dovrebbe schierare una sola monoposto nel campionato 2007. Con RuSport si è visto il messicano Mario Dominguez, in cerca di contratto, più rapido del confermato Justin Wilson. Un buon test lo ha svolto il rookie Graham Rahal con la seconda Panoz di Newman-Haas che ha girato sugli stessi tempi del suo grande rivale 2006 in F.Atlantic, il campione della categoria Simon Pagenaud. Alex Tagliani rimane alla Rocketsports mentre nel team Minardi di Paul Stoddart è apparso Robert Doornbos, ex Red Bull F.1, che è tra i candidati a correre per la squadra ex HVM. Debutto anche per la Pacific Coast che ha schierato lo scozzese Ryan Dalziel ed Alex Figge.

English
Katherine Legge ushered in the Panoz DP01 era in Champ Car on a warm day in Sebring, Florida, becoming the first driver to turn a testing lap for a team in a new Panoz DP01 Champ Car. She was soon joined by 12 other drivers in the first full day of 2007 preseason testing for the Champ Car World Series, but despite all the new drivers, teams, cars and sponsors in the series, the man at the top of the time charts remained the same. Reigning series champion Sebastien Bourdais took his Newman/Haas Racing machine to the top of the charts in the first day of testing, posting a best lap of 51.024 seconds. Bourdais was nearly six-tenths of a second quicker than his nearest competitor, who was PKV Racing rookie Neel Jani who hung a best time of 51.620 seconds, but the rest of the field was much tighter. In fact, the margin between first and second on the time charts was larger than the gap between second-placed Jani and ninth-placed Legge, who was fastest in the morning session today.
Legge ran with Dale Coyne Racing today in her first test day, turning a series-high 69 laps and leading the first session of the day. She made improvements in the second session and ended the outing with a best lap of 52.110 seconds. Forsythe Championship Racing's Paul Tracy was third on the day, running his first laps since Australia owing to his accident that kept him out of the 2006 season finale. RuSport pilots Mario Dominguez and Justin Wilson completed the top five with 1996 series champion Jimmy Vasser posting the day's sixth-best time. Vasser ran a full day in the PKV machine to help with data acquisition as the remainder of the driver lineup sorts itself out. The veteran posted 44 laps on the day with a best time of 51.814 seconds (115.961 mph).
The top two drivers in last year's Champ Car Atlantic Championship standings made their first step up today as Simon Pagenaud and Graham Rahal took testing laps with Team Australia and Newman/Haas respectively. Rahal had the better of it today, posting the seventh-best time while Pagenaud was just .152 seconds adrift.
Minardi Team USA tested with Red Bull driver Robert Doornbos, who took the chance to run for a full day at the invitation of team owner Paul Stoddart. The Formula 1 tester hung 54 laps on the board and was excited about what he had seen in the new DP01.

Nella foto, Sebastien Bourdais.

I tempi del 1° giorno, martedì 23 gennaio 2007

1 - Sebastien Bourdais - Newman/Haas - 51"024 - 58 giri
2 - Neel Jani - PKV - 51"620 - 50
3 - Paul Tracy - Forsythe - 51"708 - 116
4 - Mario Dominguez - RuSport - 51"717 - 57
5 - Justin Wilson - RuSport - 51"773 - 59
6 - Jimmy Vasser - PKV - 51"814 - 44
7 - Graham Rahal - Newman/Haas - 51"837 - 53
8 - Simon Pagenaud - Australia - 51"989 - 56
9 - Katherine Legge - Coyne - 52"110 - 69
10 - Alex Tagliani - Rocketsports - 52"854 - 27
11 - Robert Doornbos - Minardi/HVM - 52"912 - 54
12 - Ryan Dalziel - Pacific Coast - 54"048 - 25
13 - Alex Figge - Pacific Coast - 57"620 - 10