Sebastien Bourdais says he felt aggrieved and was left "upset" at being penalised for his pass on Scott Dixon at the Long Beach GP, and railed against having to race "idiots" after his sanction, which wrecked his podium prospects.
Bourdais, victor of the opening 2018 race at St. Petersburg, went around the outside of Dixon into Turn 1 in a spectacular move that also saw him slip past two lapped cars, but race officials deemed he had crossed into the pit exit lane, an area of track that drivers are not permitted to use.
As a result of his indiscretion, race control forced Bourdais to give the place back to Dixon; Bourdais obliged to their request before quickly re-passing the Ganassi driver.
"I got Dixon on the restart and Race Control deemed that a violation," said Bourdais. "I thought that was interesting because I am not quite sure what I was supposed to do. I was committed. There was room and he didn't see me, so he came down on me and pushed me into the pit lane.
"If you get forced into the pit lane, I am not sure it is your responsibility. So, I got rather upset, so I passed him right back. I was pretty happy about that, then we were just cruising."
Bourdais' afternoon went from bad to worse as he was given a drive-through penalty for entering the pit lane when it was closed, as a result of the caution period triggered when Dale Coyne team-mate Zachary Claman De Melo crashed.
In the remaining laps of the race, the 39-year old was left back in the pack and described his experience as racing with "idiots" after clashes with Carlin's Charlie Kimball, and rookies Jordan King and Matheus Leist.
"Unfortunately, as a group, we took a chance to stay out too long and then it went yellow. Race Control could have waited a couple seconds before closing the pits, but they didn't and we went to the back where we had to race idiots," said Bourdais.
"I was racing Kimball side-by-side and he gives me no room, and he bent both of my toe links on the right side. It was pretty much game over from there. I made a mistake because of it trying to pass him again later into Turn 9. The car wouldn't turn anymore.
"Then, in the next corner, King felt like a hero and took us out. After that, I had to deal with another idiot, Leist, who tried to crash both of us a couple of times. There really wasn't much to salvage after that. It's really disappointing. The car was good. I drove the wheels off it. Passed a bunch of guys and we have nothing to show for it."
