Power downbeat on title chances

Bourdais went into Sunday's race at Edmonton third in the championship, but his victory has given him a 20-point lead over Robert Doornbos, while Power is 25 adrift after he had to retire from the race with steering problems.

"This race has given Sebastien a real comfort zone, and he works very well when he's comfortable like that," said Power, who had started the race from pole position.

"He's got a 20-point gap now or something like that, which is almost a whole race win. It makes it tougher on us."

Power also rued his misfortune at being one of the only retirements on Sunday, which meant that he picked up far fewer points than Bourdais did when he retired in Toronto.

"It's not a DNF like Sebastien had last week where only eight cars finished, everyone basically finished, bar two, so we lose a lot of points in that," he added. "It was a very disappointing weekend."

Bourdais admitted that he was happy to be the man everyone is chasing in the title race, but he doesn't think that the close fight is now over for the rest of the year.

"Obviously it's a lot better to be chased than to chase people in the championship," said the reigning champion. "We're in a better position, but it's far from over."

Bourdais has now won four of the eight races this year, but three retirements have enabled Doornbos and Power to stay in touch in the standings.

"All we need to do now, is just finish the races," said Bourdais. "We need to take the win when it's ours, and just finish when we can't win, I guess."