Bourdais takes dominant Zolder win

The Frenchman led from pole position, and though there some untimely yellow flags, a crucial pass of Bruno Junqueira while battling over fourth behind three cars running on a different strategy won him the race.

Bourdais' fastest lap was 0.7 seconds quicker than anyone else managed,.

Junqueira and his team, despite a disastrous first pitstop, used the full course caution periods to perfection to track through the field, and the Brazilian scored the team's first podium finish for three years.

The man who he had to hold off to the flag was the second Newman/Haas/Lanigan machine of Graham Rahal.

Rahal took full advantage of his team's superior car to get up to third, and though he was then passed by Justin Wilson, he was able to take advantage of the Briton outbraking himself as attempted to also nail Junqueira on lap 61.

Will Power of Team Australia was also able to get past Wilson at this point and went on to finish fourth.

The Australian ran third in the early stages of the race behind Bourdais and Robert Doornbos, but though he looked closest to matching the champion's pace at that stage, he always had the Minardi USA car in the way.

After the final restart, caused by Mario Dominguez losing his right rear wheel, Oriol Servia of Forsythe Championship Racing was able to snatch sixth from Neel Jani (PKV Racing) and Robert Doornbos.

Classified:

Pos  Driver            Team                          Time
 1.  S.Bourdais        Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing    1h45:21.997
 2.  Bruno Junqueira   Dale Coyne Racing             +    13.655
 3.  Graham Rahal      Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing    +    14.458
 4.  Will Power        Team Australia                +    15.147
 5.  Justin Wilson     RuSPORT                       +    15.972
 6.  Oriol Servia      Forsythe Championship Racing  +    17.150
 7.  Robert Doornbos   Minardi Team USA              +    18.369
 8.  Neel Jani         PKV Racing                    +    19.073
 9.  Alex Tagliani     Rocketsports Racing           +    23.834
10.  Paul Tracy        Forsythe Championship Racing  +    24.501
11.  Katherine Legge   Dale Coyne Racing             +    28.843
12.  Simon Pagenaud    Team Australia                +    33.188
13.  Jan Heylen        Conquest Racing               +  1:12.098
14.  Alex Figge        Pacific Coast Motorsports     +    1 Lap
15.  Ryan Dalziel      Pacific Coast Motorsports     +    4 Laps

Retirements:

     Driver            Team                        Laps
     Tristan Gommendy  PKV Racing                   60
     Mario Dominguez   Minardi Team USA             47

Fastest lap: Bourdais, 1:14.089 on lap 39