Sebastien Bourdais starts strong, wins Champ Car crown

All he needed was a ninth-place finish in the Mexican Grand Prix.
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Sebastien Bourdais wanted it all, and he got it.
"I think it cannot be better, to celebrate the championship by winning the race, having done the pole position and set the fastest lap," he said Sunday after claiming his first Champ Car title with a victory in the season-ending Mexican Grand Prix.
Bourdais overcame a spin and a sticky gearbox to win, beating teammate Bruno Junqueira with a flag-to-flag victory.
"I'm really, really, really glad it's over," Bourdais said. "It's a whole lot of pressure on a 25-year-old guy."
Until he saw the checkered flag, the Frenchman took nothing for granted.
Concern
"I was so scared about, you know, not being able to give it a clear shot with an incident at the start or mechanical failure," he explained.
Bourdais managed to win despite sliding on the 42nd lap. The slip cost him about 12 seconds of the lead he held over Junqueira.
The Brazilian was runner-up in the standings for the third year in a row and wound up second in the race, more than five seconds behind.
Bourdais started on the pole and never trailed, charging to his seventh victory of the season even though a ninth-place finish would have guaranteed him the championship.
"At some point it becomes a question of honor," he said. "You want to win the race so badly."
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.
Bourdais steadily built a lead of nearly 18 seconds over Junqueira through the first 41 laps on the 2.786-mile road course. But he remained nervous.
Crash images
"I couldn't prevent myself from thinking about a crash," he said. "I couldn't help having the picture coming through my mind."
Bourdais put a wheel onto the grass as he passed through a section of shadow while trying to get by Mario Dominguez and took a spin just before the track veers oddly through a baseball stadium.
The two leaders expressed irritation that other drivers failed to let them pass as they fought in the final laps.
"It was a shame because they didn't penalize the drivers who didn't let me and Sebastien race," Junqueira said.
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