Bourdais keeps cool to win Houston

The Frenchman headed a Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing 1-2, as teammate Graham Rahal became the youngest podium finisher in Champ Car history with a similarly fault-free run.

Fellow rookie Robert Doornbos of Team Minardi USA came home third, his second podium finish in the opening three races of the 2007 season.

In a controversial move at the first chicane - bypassing rather than driving around it - Bourdais stole the lead from Will Power, who a few corners later also lost a place to RSPORTS' Justin Wilson.

Wilson then pressured Bourdais and sneaked past his former F3000 rival to lead from lap 2 to lap 13 when the Frenchman regained pre-eminence with a clean outbraking manoeuvre into the chicane.

Thereafter, Bourdais was never headed until Tristan Gommendy - on an entirely different pit strategy, as at Long Beach last week - took advantage of a full course caution to head the field.

However, the PKV Racing car was clearly winging it on fuel and ground to a halt on lap 86 - eight laps from the end of the one hour and 46 minutes race.

Oriol Servia was Bourdais' closest rival through the majority of the race, until the final pitstop, which ended just as Forsythe Championship Racing's Mario Dominguez arrived in the pit box ahead for his stop.

Servia lost several places as the Mexican's car was in his way, and the Catalan eventually came home fourth.

Simon Pagenaud, who changed from red tyres to hard compound early in the race, came through the field to take fifth for Team Australia, while teammate Power's day turned from bad to worse.

The Australian's car required a new nose after his coming together with Wilson, yet he might has still finished in the top six had he not rammed Dominguez at the chicane as the Mexican left the pit road, wiping off his front wing for a second time.

Power would go onto finish 11th, ironically just behind Wilson.

A late-race spin for Bruno Junqueira cost him a chance to beat Dominguez for sixth place, but Ryan Dalziel kept up Pacific Coast Motorsports' fine trend of finishing in the top ten in their inaugural season.

Alex Tagliani was making fine progress in the second RSPORTS' car, starting from 11th on the grid, but two refuelling problems in the race saw him make five pitstops, which ruined any chance of a decent finish for the Canadian.

Pos  Driver       Team                        Time
 1.  Bourdais     Newman/ Haas/ Lanigan       1h45:32.136
 2.  Rahal        Newman/ Haas/ Lanigan       +     4.818
 3.  Doornbos     Minardi Team USA            +     7.060
 4.  Servia       Forsythe Championship       +     8.749
 5.  Pagenaud     Team Australia              +     9.453
 6.  Dominguez    Forsythe Championship       +    19.078
 7.  Junqueira    Dale Coyne                  +    19.780
 8.  Dalziel      Pacific Coast Motorsports   +    20.329
 9.  Tagliani     RSPORTS                     +    25.062
10.  Wilson       RSPORTS                     +    28.539
11.  Power        Team Australia              +    1 Lap
12.  Moreno       Pacific Coast Motorsports   +    3 Laps
13.  Gommendy     PKV                         +    8 Laps
14.  Halliday     Conquest                    +   16 Laps
15.  Jani         PKV                         +   26 Laps
16.  Legge        Dale Coyne                  +   26 Laps
17.  Clarke       Minardi Team USA            +   26 Laps

Fastest lap: Bourdais, 58.018 on lap 93