Despite hopes, there was no second pole position for Sébastien Bourdais after that of 2010 with Peugeot. However, we believed in it for a long time, especially when the local got out of his Cadillac and joined his engineers on the wall with a big smile.
A big smile that some may have imagined “provocative” given the timing. At this precise moment, the session was neutralized after the exit of the track of Dries Vanthoor (BMW No. 15) in Indianapolis which caused a flag and there was a little more than 7 minutes remaining. Enough to do at least two real flying laps for the drivers still in the running.
Bourdais beaten to the wire
On the track, the Ferraris believed in it but Antonio Fuoco (No. 50) quickly slowed down while Alessandro Pier Guidi failed to reach just under 4 tenths of Sébastien Bourdais’ mark. History seemed to be in progress but his teammate in the No. 2 and Kévin Estre in the No. 6 Porsche still had to make their last attempt.
And what was supposed to happen, happened. In turn, Alex Lynn and Kévin Estre beat the time of Manceau who fell to third place 0.182 behind his compatriot, in pole position for the first time in history (all categories combined).
When revealing the reasons which pushed Cadillac not to send him back to the track, Sébastien Bourdais explained that it was mainly a question of fuel. With the quantity on board, and the ban on refueling during the Hyperpole, the risk of breaking down, and therefore causing a red flag which would have resulted in a cancellation of times, was too high. As a result, the Detroit clan preferred to play the safety card.
“ It was a really solid ridehe is delighted above all with his performance. On a circuit like this, you always lose a little bit. But in the end, I’m really happy with what we did. I didn’t feel very comfortable with the car during testing but as soon as we put it on track for qualifying it was incredible. This time I didn’t get any traffic. During the first round of preparation, I pushed to the end because I knew he was lost. That’s why, when they told me I would only have one lap, I thought it was impossible and that I wouldn’t be able to get the tires up to temperature. We were probably going to run out of gas to do 3 laps (during the first stint) then 2. That’s how it is. After all, I was super happy that we were able to do this. This is incredible and great for Cadillac. I am very happy. This car has four wheels and we didn’t hesitate for a second. We can now race. Everything went well. We can now think about the race. »
Third under the checkerboard, Sébastien Bourdais and his teammates Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon will finally start 2e due to the 5 place penalty for the N°2 after Earl Bamber’s accident at Spa last May.
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