Champ Car Mont-Tremblant 2008 Friday Practice

Practice went very well among all the teams Friday for round 7 of the Champ Car World Series. While rain hit the track lightly for the first session, Practice 2 was dry and fast. The track bonded well for the Forsythe Petitt Racing team, with 3 of their 4 drivers in the top 10. Of those 3 cars, none were the leader though, with Dutchman Robert Doornbos putting his Minardi car on top of the time charts with a 1:15.63 lap. The second fastest car during the sessions was the first Forsythe car with rookie Franck Montagny posting a lap of 1:15.89. In third is the Dale Coyne Racing machine of Bruno Junquiera.

Friday was a struggle for Rocketsport driver Antonio Pizzonia. Given an opportunity to rejoin the team after being replaced by Jos Verstappen, Pizzonia managed only 9 laps in P1,and on his out lap in P2, he put the car off course and broke the gearbox, ending the session. Paul Gentilozzi commented on the situation with the Brazilian drivers.

“Antonio has impressed me, but he has just been unable to drive this car we give him. He is not adapting to his situation and is not working well with the engineers. We will have to go back home Monday and talk with him about his future with the team.”

Pizzonia will continue with the weekend and is still schedule to compete in Toronto.
The surprise of Friday was the speed of the Carlin Motorsport car. Receiving their car only three weeks ago and having a practice at Silverstone, Giorgio Pantano was only 17th in P1, but in P2 he managed to move his car up to 12th.

Also very fast during Practice were the Team Australia Walker Racing cars of Will Power and provincial favorite Alex Tagliani who put both of their cars in the top 5.

Friday was not the session for which young sophomore star, Graham Rahal’s had hoped for. Never getting a grip on the car, he could only manage a 18th place time.

P1 and P2 Combined Times:
Robert Doornbos -- 1:15.63
Franck Montagny -- 1:15.89
Bruno Junquiera -- 1:15.91
Will Power -- 1:15.96
Alex Tagliani -- 1:15.99
Paul Tracy -- 1:16.09
Franck Perera -- 1:16.23
Justin Wilson -- 1:16.26
Nelson Philippe -- 1:16.32
Oriol Servia -- 1:16.39
Dan Clarke -- 1:16.54
Giorgio Pantano -- 1:16.59
Tomas Scheckter -- 1:16.67
Simon Pagenaud -- 1:16.78
Mario Dominguez -- 1:16.79
David Martinez -- 1:16.86
Raphael Matos -- 1:16.99
Graham Rahal -- 1:17.21
EJ Viso -- 1:17.23
Enrique Bernoldi -- 1:17.42
Antonio Pizzonia -- 1:17.98