Sebastien Bourdais brought the curtain down on his Champ Car World Series in fine style with another victory in Mexico City – ensuring the Frenchman will head to F1 on the back of a career in America that saw him win over 40 per cent of his races.

Bourdais' 31st Champ Car victory moved him into a share of sixth-place on the all-time winners list but it was a win that was far from straightforward – with a penalty prior to the race and a late caution period leading to some anxious moments in the Newman Haas Lanigan Racing garage.

Along with team-mate Graham Rahal, Bourdais was penalised 22 seconds of Power to Pass before the race after race officials found that the pair had tried to gain an unfair advantage by laying rubber on the grid during the morning practice session.

From second on the grid behind Will Power, Bourdais maintained his postion through the early stages of the race before taking the lead from the Australian on lap 24.

Pitting shortly afterwards, Bourdais would remain out front until the finish, despite a late caution for debris on the track that saw his lead vanish and put him under pressure for the closing stages from Power – who had double the P2P still available.

“It was a difficult race after being penalised once and then suffering some kind of a weird yellow,” the champion reflected. “We tried to do the best we could to stop the pressure from building around us, but there was just no way out.

“There was no better way to finish off that chapter of my career. I really felt like everybody deserved it in the team, and it was on my side to finish it off because the cards were on the table and played pretty much. It was up to me to make the best use of it.

“We just really didn't hold anything back, and I saved more fuel than I was supposed to because I wanted to give it a try at the end of the first stint, and it worked out. Will lost the rears and started to have a much tougher time to make up the mileage and had to slow down, and that's when I decided to go for it. I knew I wasn't going to have a ton of shots at it because obviously with only 53 seconds of Push to Pass and about 18 seconds every time you use it in the front straight, it was going to go away in a hurry.

“From there it was just a straightforward race, the way we like them and the way we've controlled quite a few. And it means it probably tops everything else, between the emotion, the performance on the racetrack and the way things turned out, obviously it's quite complete.”

Bourdais will now head to Barcelona to take part in the F1 group test at Catalunya this week.