Bourdais Wins Mexican GP, Champ Car Title

MEXICO CITY November 7, 2004; John Rice writing for the AP reported that Sebastien Bourdais took his first Champ Car title, beating teammate Bruno Junqueira with a flag-to-flag victory Sunday in the Mexican Grand Prix.

Frenchman Bourdais managed to win despite a slide on the 42nd lap that cost him about 12 seconds of the lead he held over Newman/Haas teammate Junqueira. The Brazilian finished second in the standings for the third year in a row and wound up second in the race, more than 5 seconds behind.

Bourdais scored 369 points to 341 for Junqueira.

Rookie of the year A.J. Allmendinger was third in the race, just ahead of rookie Justin Wilson.

Patrick Carpenter wound up sixth and held off Forsythe teammate Paul Tracy to finish third in the points races. Tracy, who won the title last year, wound up 10th in the race.

Bourdais steadily built a lead of nearly 18 seconds over Junqueira through the first 41 laps on the 2.786-mile road course. But Bourdais put a wheel onto the grass and took a spin just before the track cuts through a baseball stadium.

Tracy's day hardly went well. A bump from another car put him in the grass coming out the first turn on the opening lap. Two laps later, he scraped against Roberto Gonzalez, who had been turned into the wall, and found the grass again