rpm.espn.com: Gil de Ferran

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Tuesday, December 18

Gil de Ferran
By Robin Miller
ESPN.com

Team: Team Penske
Nationality: Brazilian

Gil de Ferran
de Ferran

STATS (CART)

Year
Rank
Wins
Top 5
Top 10
Poles
Best finish

2001 1 2 10 14 1 1st, Twice

Career 7 42 73 16 1st, Seven times

2001 Recap
The Good: Consistency combined with speed gave Gil de Ferran his second straight CART championship as he bunched nine top-five finishes around his two victories at England and Houston.

Season Highlight: Made a spectacular pass of Kenny Brack on the last lap to triumph in the inaugural race at Rockingham Speedway in England and set the tone for his stretch run to the title.

The Bad: If anything, finding balance and speed on the ovals, but that improved by Germany and England.

Season Lowlight: Crashed trying to make an optimistic pass on Alex Tagliani at Nazareth, Pa.

de Ferran
Gil de Ferran won his second consecutive CART title in 2001.

Key Stat: During the final nine races, started no worse than fourth in eight of them and clinched championship in next-to-last race.

2002 Outlook
What needs to be done: CART tried to entice Roger Penske to keep de Ferran and let him go for an unprecedented third consecutive champ car crown, but to no avail. De Ferran will be a reluctant IRL driver in 2002.

Prediction: At 34, the versatile Brazilian has no love for an all-oval series and, like teammate Helio Castroneves, if Penske doesn't go back to CART this will likely be his final season with The Captain. Unless everyone is in the IRL come 2003.

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