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Bourdais, Rahal penalised in Mexico

Four-time Champ Car title-winner Sebastien Bourdais and his Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing teammate Graham Rahal have been hit with a penalty before this afternoon's season finale in Mexico City

The pair have been docked 22 seconds of their original 75 seconds of Power-to-Pass allotment for a transgression that occurred in this morning's standing start practice.

Both Bourdais and Rahal performed practice starts from their grid boxes, rather than coming to the start/finish line to practice.

The resulting rubber laid down from their grid slots was deemed to offer a significant traction advantage come this afternoon's race-start, and such practice had been outlawed according to paperwork distributed to all teams this morning.

As a result, Champ Car's executive VPO Tony Cotman has penalised both drivers, who will start from second and seventh respectively. The penalty is regarded as a severe one, given that the Power-to-Pass is this weekend a 100bhp overboost.

Given the length of the main straight at Hermanos Rodriguez Autodromo and the extreme width of the track at Turn 1, this will make Bourdais and Rahal highly susceptible to being passed should they run out of boost before their rivals.

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