Sebastien Bourdais Race Summary:
In an awesome display of grit and determination Sebastien Bourdais piloted the No. 18 Team SealMaster – Dale Coyne w/ Vasser-Sullivan machine from 19th on the starting grid to seventh in the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey. Bourdais tweaked his neck during Friday’s afternoon practice and immediately began suffering from significant pain requiring several treatments. Despite the pain he managed to qualify on Saturday albeit in 19th place. The pain continued into race day, but Bourdais was not to be deterred. He found his groove early in the race and was often the fastest car on track. Bourdais used the speed and his tremendous talent, as well as a solid race strategy, to pass cars picking up position after position. The 12-place improvement made him the “biggest mover” in the race and the performance, particularly under the circumstances, was lauded by everyone.
Sebastien Bourdais Race Quote:
“It was a wonderful way to finish the season for the SealMaster Honda No. 18 team. It was a heck of a race for us. We started 19th and about lap 11 I got in a groove. The car was clearly good and we started to show our pace. Then we gained a lot of positions on the overcut (pitting later) and we did that pretty much the whole race. The yellow also really benefitted us. It regrouped everyone and at the end we were on new red tires (Firestone alternative tire). It was a really positive note to end the season, going from 19th to seventh in a straight up fight, we’ll definitely take that and move into 2020 looking for more success.”
Fast Facts:
Bourdais finished the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series season 11th in the championship standings with 387 points. He has scored nine top-10 finishes including a season high third place finish at Barber and a fifth at COTA. He finished seventh today at Laguna Seca and at Pocono, eighth at Toronto and Texas, and ninth at Detroit GP Race 2, Iowa and Portland. Bourdais also has four 11th place showings, Mid-Ohio, Detroit Race 1, Long Beach and the INDYCAR GP, placed 12th at Road America, 19th at St. Louis, 24th at St. Petersburg and 30th in the Indy 500.
This is Bourdais’ best finish at Laguna Seca in three races surpassing an eighth place finish in his last start here back in 2004 (finished 17th in 2003).
The 2019 Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey was be Bourdais’ 205th NTT IndyCar Series start and third at Laguna Seca Raceway.
This was Bourdais’ 14th NTT IndyCar Series season and second with Dale Coyne Racing w/ Vasser-Sullivan.
In 205 career IndyCar starts, he has won 37 races (sixth all-time) and captured 34 pole positions (seventh all time).
Bourdais is the only driver to win four consecutive IndyCar championships (2004 – 2007).
Bourdais, 40, is a native of Le Mans, France but resides in St. Petersburg, Florida
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