History repeated itself once again in Mexico City, as Sebastien Bourdais overcame a polewinner with a broken wrist to take victory in the final round of a Champ Car World Series season.
This time around, however, was less controversy as the four-time champion made his move for the lead well before mid-distance and, a late yellow flag period aside, left the field in his wake to bow out of the championship in style.
Unable to overhaul the injured Will Power off the line, Bourdais bided his time in second place before pouncing on the Australian a couple of laps before both made their first scheduled pit-stop. Despite setting the pace at the head of the field, the two leaders managed to eke more fuel mileage out of their cars than anyone else, pitting beyond the 24-lap mark that was seen as the key to a two-stop race.
Once in front, Bourdais lapped nearly two seconds faster than Power on their respective in-laps to emerge comfortably ahead after being refuelled and fitted with new tyres, and continued the theme to pull out a cushion over the only man who appeared capable of denying him victory.
The fact that Power was in that position, despite racing with two fractures in his left wrist, was because of a bizarre start to the race for Minardi Team USA, which last Dan Clarke to clutch failure on the opening lap, and then saw Robert Doornbos, who had started third on the grid, succumb to a similar problem just three laps in, as the field went green after an early yellow period.
The caution was caused by three cars stalling on the grid - including one other potential race winner, Oriol Servia - which saw the starting order shuffled on the run to turn one, and then reshuffled as race control decided that several moves had been completed under yellow. When the field was released on lap three, Power headed Bourdais, the soon-to-stop Doornbos, Justin Wilson, Paul Tracy and Simon Pagenaud, the Frenchman having had to take avoiding action to miss Servia, his right rear tearing banners from the pit-wall in the process.
Nelson Philippe and Alex Tagliani were the other stallers, at the back of the field, and, along with Servia, opted to pit early in the hope of turning around a Bruno Junqueira-esque performance that may yield a podium. In the end, however, only the Spaniard proved to be a force.
Doornbos' problem, which forced Wilson to execute a high-speed pass after catching the slowing Minardi car on the main straight, appeared to hand the Briton second place on the standings, but, when Wilson then slowed momentarily 13 laps later, efforts in the Minardi pit intensified as the team sensed an opportunity may present itself to reverse fortune.
Minardi had already been hard at work on the Dutchman's machine in an effort to get Doornbos back on track and prevent Power from snatching third overall - fastest lap all that would be needed even if Power won the race - and, when Wilson's RuSPORT team found a way to counteract a fuel pick-up problem and keep running, that was all that was left for Paul Stoddart's outfit. Doornbos duly returned to the track after losing more than 30 laps to the opposition, but made full use of the extra power to pass on tap for Mexico to blitz Bourdais' lap record, setting a new mark at 1min 24.713secs on lap 42 before retiring once again.
