Bourdais gets into the game

Starting a Monaco GP from 14th place on the grid is never a good omen. It's condemning yourself to a waiting race. What the French Bourdais refused.

First get out of the caboose to get back into the peloton. Great exercise at the wheel of a super-heavy gasoline machine with only one stop on the horizon. “The car was moving quite a bit, I had a few wheel locks? but I had to stay in touch. In some places the track was so dirty outside of just the grippy line that if I strayed a few centimeters it felt like I was riding on the beach. The tires no longer held up and took a long time to recover. This happened to me twice at the Porter and I thought I wouldn't get through it. There is only one recipe for dirty tires: hit them to bring them back to life as quickly as possible. But not recommended either because of their accelerating degradation. At one point, I was afraid I had asked too much of them. It was absolutely necessary to stay on the line, there was only there to ride on the track which was a little rubberized, therefore grippy. »

Blocked for a long time by Nakajima and Fisichella, against whom he felt faster, Bourdais then significantly anticipated his stop on advice from his team. Well seen. “From the moment I came out in front of them, the point was in the pocket and there was no one to pick up in front of me, I managed. Watch out for the rails, the tires, the brakes! Taking a point in these conditions while not having taken a lap by the leaders, which is very easy here, is obviously satisfactory but starting 14th to finish 8th is even more so. It was really far from being a foregone conclusion. »

Find the full interview in AUTOhebdo N°1702, on newsstands on May 27