Bourdais scores team's 100th win
Sebastien Bourdais drove a superb race at Portland International Raceway to take Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing's 100th Champ Car win and pull away from Will Power in the championship standings
With his third victory in the first four rounds of the championship, the Frenchman proved the class of the field, regularly lapping the 1.964-mile road course between 0.5 and 0.8 seconds quicker than his nearest challenger, pole-sitter Justin Wilson.
The Briton brought his RSPORTS car home 13.5 seconds behind the Frenchman, ahead of Team Minardi USA's Robert Doornbos.
The standing start went without incident, and Wilson pulled away from the field convincingly to build up an 18.8-second lead before his pitstop on lap 27.
However, second placed Doornbos had headed a train of cars - namely Power (Team Australia), Bourdais, Alex Tagliani (RSPORTS) Tristan Gommendy (PKV Racing) and Doornbos' own teammate, Dan Clarke.
This allowed Bourdais to save a lot of fuel, and even though he was passed by Tagliani into Turn 1 on lap 20, the Frenchman was able to stay out longer, get a clear lap, and emerge from his own pitstop in second place.
He rapidly closed Wilson down, and by his second pitstop, a 16-second lead had shrunk to little more than five seconds.
Bourdais' tyres were well up to temperature when Wilson emerged from his stop four laps later, and it took just a lap - and a slightly obstructive backmarker - to get the champion's car on to the Briton's tail, allowing him to draft past down the front straight and grab the lead.
Thereafter, Wilson had nothing to offer in the way of a challenge, as his car appeared to suffer ever worsening understeer, but due to his excellent first stint the RSPORTS car remained easily clear of his pursuers.
Although Power had emerged from the first pitstop ahead of Doornbos, the Dutchman found his final set of tyres held up much better, and he was able to pass the Australian into the Turn 1 chicane.
Tagliani's RSPORTS crew gave him an excellent final pitstop, and his own out-lap was strong, allowing him to catch the later stopping Gommendy while the Frenchman was still on cold tyres, and pass him.
The PKV car then faded, and Clarke was able to pass him too and draft up on to the Canadian's tail, finishing less than a second behind him.
Forsythe Championship Racing had a disastrous day, with Paul Tracy scraping into the top 10, and Servia taking 11th only when Jan Heylen - who had been pressuring Tracy - had his Conquest Racing car retire in the closing stages.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Sebastien Bourdais Newman Haas Lanigan Racing 1h45:42.774 2. Justin Wilson RSPORTS + 13.537 3. Robert Doornbos Minardi Team USA + 35.151 4. Will Power Team Australia + 43.338 5. Alex Tagliani RSPORTS + 1:01.396 6. Dan Clarke Minardi Team USA + 1:02.045 7. Tristan Gommendy PKV Racing + 1 lap 8. Simon Pagenaud Team Australia + 1 lap 9. Graham Rahal Newman Haas Lanigan Racing + 1 lap 10. Paul Tracy Forsythe Championship Racing + 1 lap 11. Oriol Servia Forsythe Championship Racing + 1 lap 12. Neel Jani PKV Racing + 1 lap 13. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne Racing + 1 lap 14. Ryan Dalziel Pacific Coast Motorsports + 2 laps 15. Jan Heylen Conquest Racing + 3 laps 16. Alex Figge Pacific Coast Motorsports + 3 laps 17. Katherine Legge Dale Coyne Racing + 4 laps
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