Bourdais Ends Champ Car Career With Win in Mexico

Will Power wrapped up a breakthrough Champ Car season with a second-place result, his best result since a victory in Round 7 at Toronto.

Sebastien Bourdais claimed his eighth victory of the season and the 31st of his Champ Car career in the Gran Premio Tecate presented by Banamex at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday.

MEXICO CITY, Mexico - It was a fitting end to a remarkable Champ Car World Series career for four-time series champion Sebastien Bourdais as the Frenchman claimed his eighth victory of the season and the 31st of his Champ Car career in the Gran Premio Tecate presented by Banamex at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Despite the fact that he was penalized 22 seconds off his originally-allotted 75 seconds of Power To Pass for an infraction during the Sunday morning standing start practice session, Bourdais started second and calmly stalked polesitter and race leader Will Power through the early stages of the race.

He made his move on the Australian rising star on Lap 24, taking advantage of his Power To Pass to sweep into the lead in Turn 1. The quadruple Champ Car champion retained the lead through both rounds of pit stops with customary outstanding service from his Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing crew, while a late full-course caution period for debris in Turn 4 did nothing but reduce Bourdais' margin of victory. Bourdais was never challenged and crossed the stripe 1.906 seconds ahead of Power to claim the victory.

The eight victories for Bourdais this season was a personal best, topping the 2004 and 2006 championship-winning seasons in which he earned seven wins in each season. It also moved him into a tie for fourth place on the all-time list of Champ Car victories in a single season.

It was Bourdais' third victory in five career starts at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and he has finished inside the top two in four of his five career starts at the venue. He is now tied with Al Unser Jr. and Paul Tracy for sixth place on the all-time Champ Car victory list with 31.

Bourdais clinched his unprecedented fourth Vanderbilt Cup in the penultimate round of the 2007 season at Surfers Paradise and closed out the year - and his Champ Car career - with a total of 364 points. He finished 83 points ahead of Justin Wilson, 364-281, and departs Mexico City on Sunday evening for a test session in Barcelona with Scuderia Toro Rosso, for whom he will drive in Formula 1 in 2008.

Power wrapped up a breakthrough Champ Car season with a second-place result, his best result since a victory in Round 7 at Toronto.

It was the Team Australia driver's fifth podium result of the season, in which he also claimed his first career Champ Car victory in the Las Vegas season-opener.

Power finished the year fourth in the championship standings, two positions better than his previous career-best points result of sixth, which he achieved in 2006.

Although he stalled his car on the race's standing start and fell to the rear of the field, Oriol Servia capped a season that he began without a ride by charging to his third podium result of the season with a third-place performance in Mexico City.

Servia did not join the series until Round 2 at Long Beach - where he substituted for an injured Tracy at Forsythe Championship Racing - and moved from FCR to PKV Racing prior to Round 13 at Surfers Paradise. His showing in Mexico City allowed him to move from ninth entering the race to sixth in the final point standings.

American rookie Graham Rahal secured fifth place in the final Champ Car World Series point standings with a fourth-place performance in the Gran Premio Tecate presented by Banamex.

Like Bourdais, Rahal was also docked 22 seconds of Power To Pass for the same infraction in standing start practice, but he too overcame the penalty to earn his fifth top-five result of the season. The fourth-place run was Rahal's best since finishing third three races ago in Zolder.

Rounding out the top five was Tracy, who had by far his best permanent road course performance of the season at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. The Canadian missed Rounds 2 and 3 at Long Beach and Houston due to an injury he sustained in practice at Long Beach and recorded his seventh top-10 result in 12 starts this season. Despite missing two races, he wound up the year 11th in the championship standings.

Simon Pagenaud finished sixth in the race and eighth in the championship to complete his rookie Champ Car season, while Bruno Junqueira finished seventh to equal his position in the final championship standings.

Mexico City native Mario Dominguez wound up eighth in the Pacific Coast Motorsports machine after being penalized one position for crossing the line at the exit to Turn 17 multiple times.

Nevertheless, Dominguez still earned the bonus point for improving the most positions from start to finish. PKV Racing's Neel Jani finished ninth and Wilson - who suffered mechanical problems after running the early portion of the race inside the top five - completed the top 10.

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