Bourdais wins to clinch

‘The Iceman’ won the
Brazilian Grand Prix.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SURFERS PARADISE, Australia — As usual, Sebastien Bourdais outdid himself.

Needing only to finish 12th or better, the Formula One-bound Frenchman won Sunday’s Lexmark Indy 300 to clinch his fourth straight Champ Car drivers’ title.

Bourdais took the lead for good with 20 minutes left in the 1 hour, 45-minute timed race and went on to become the first driver to win the race twice in its 17-year history.

Bourdais, who has clinched the driver’ championship in Australia the last three years, also won the Surfers race in 2005.

He set a race lap record time of 1 minute, 31.145 seconds on his 58th lap, breaking the previous mark of 1:32.063 set by Cristiano da Matta in 2001.

Bourdais, who will drive for the Toro Rosso team in F1 next year, held a 58-point lead over second-place Justin Wilson going into Sunday’s race. There is one event left in the Champ Car season — Nov. 11 in Mexico City.

Brazilian GP

SAO PAULO, Brazil — Kimi Raikkonen is known as “The Iceman,” and he more than kept his cool Sunday. He won the Brazilian Grand Prix and captured the Formula One title in the tightest race for the championship in 21 years.

The Ferrari driver rallied from third place in the points standings for his first F1 crown, taking advantage of Lewis Hamilton’s mistake on the first lap and Fernando Alonso’s disappointing run.

Raikkonen grabbed the lead with 21 laps to go and was followed by teammate Felipe Massa. Alonso, Hamilton’s McLaren teammate, finished third.

Hamilton came into the race leading the points standings and needed a top-two finish to become the first rookie to win the title and F1’s youngest champion. He went off the track on the first lap and later had car problems to finish seventh.

Alonso, second in the standings coming in, would have had to have finished second and Hamilton fifth to keep Raikkonen from winning the championship after his victory. Raikkonen erased a seven-point gap coming into the race to finish with 110 points, one more than Hamilton and Alonso.

Alonso was trying to become only the third driver to win three consecutive titles in the history of F1, along with Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher.