Sebastien Bourdais won Champ Car’s Belgian expedition on Sunday, to nobody’s great surprise – but, after him, the places were decided by whose fuel strategy worked best.
Brit Katherine Legge‘s Dale Coyne Racing team-mate Bruno Junqueira got it just right: he turned a lowly 15th place into a late-race lead by electing to stay on track and nurse his remaining fuel when others were diving into the pits for a final splash-and-dash.
Despite his careful husbanding of fuel and consequent slow running, only the unstoppable Bourdais could catch him. Among the others he successfully held off was Justin Wilson, who locked his brakes attempting a pass and dropped back to fifth, where he eventually finished.
Legge herself had a frustrating afternoon: she hit a curb and damaged her car mid-way through the race, losing what her team calculated as a probable top six finish and ending up 11th.
Ryan Dalziel had been hoping to improve on his qualifying position but the Pacific Coast Motorsport driver could only finish 15th, four laps down on the winners.