ebastien Bourdais clinched the 2004 Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford Championship with dominating performance in Mexico City Bourdais (#2 McDonald's Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) took a commanding lead in the first turn of yesterday's Gran Premio Telmex/Tecate Presented by Banamex and rolling away to a flag-to-flag win that clinched the 2004 Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford championship.

The 25-year-old Frenchman led every lap around the 2.786-mile Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on his way to capturing the Vanderbilt Cup, scoring his first Champ Car title and the fifth for his Newman/Haas Racing team. He scored his seventh win of the season and the 10th of his career, claiming the series title by 28 points over his teammate Bruno Junqueira (#6 PacifiCare Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone). Junqueira gave a spirited chase all day in trying to wrest the championship away from his teammate, but in the end would settle for his 10th podium finish of the year by placing second.

QUOTES FROM THE TOP THREE FINISHERS:

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (#2 McDonald's Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone): "I think it cannot be better, to celebrate the championship by winning the race, having done the pole position and set the fastest lap of the race. It is a well-deserved championship for the whole McDonald's team and a fantastic achievement from the Newman/Haas Racing team. I really just scared myself and probably the rest of us when I spun the car going into the stadium. The sun was going down and the shade was gaining on the racetrack. I was trying to pass Mario. I thought he was going to let me by, and he didn't. Then I hit the bump with the rear setup, and when it came back on the racetrack, I spun immediately. I was so afraid to kill the engine at that time that I kept my foot down, spun the wheel as hard as I could. When it came back under control, I was facing the tires, used the reverse and went back out again. It was just a scary moment for a minute or two, then it came back to normal. I'm so glad it's over."

BRUNO JUNQUEIRA (#6 PacifiCare Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone): "I am a little frustrated finishing second in the Championship, that still is a great result. It was a hard race. I was trying to save fuel and Sebastien (Bourdais) kept pulling away. I was just waiting to see if he was going to have any problems. Then he spun and he was very lucky to have stayed away from the wall. I am happy for Sebastien and the team, it was a close battle. It was a great year for Newman/Haas Racing. I will just work harder for next year."

A.J. ALLMENDINGER (#10 Western Union Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone): "This weekend has been great overall. We made a mistake in qualifying yesterday with the car setup, and that's what put us back in seventh. I figured we were probably third quickest in qualifying yesterday, too. But overall, the team has done a great job throughout the whole year, rookie team trying to learn the series, finding out how difficult it is. But, overall, I'm thrilled with the finish. It's a great way to end the year and also important to start next year with a lot of momentum. So I think this will do that."

Results  Finished - Started - Driver - Engine/Chassis/Tire  LC  Time  Mph  km/h  Lag  Status1  1  2  S. Bourdais  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  63  1:39:02.662  106.327  171.117     Active 2  2  6  B. Junqueira  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  63  1:39:07.266  106.245  170.984  4.604  Active 3  7  10  A. Allmendinger  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  63  1:39:09.442  106.206  170.922  6.780  Active 4  3  34  J. Wilson  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  63  1:39:10.564  106.186  170.889  7.902  Active 5  4  12  J. Vasser  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  63  1:39:19.743  106.022  170.626  17.081  Active 6  8  7  P. Carpentier  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  63  1:40:00.450  105.303  169.469  57.788  Active 7  5  11  O. Servia  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  63  1:40:23.763  104.895  168.813  1:21.101  Active 8  15  55  M. Dominguez  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  63  1:40:25.389  104.867  168.767  1:22.727  Active 9  10  9  M. Jourdain Jr.  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  63  1:40:34.561  104.708  168.511  1:31.899  Active 10  6  1  P. Tracy  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  62  1:39:03.664  104.622  168.372  1 Lap  Active 11  13  8  A. Tagliani  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  62  1:39:04.228  104.612  168.356  1 Lap  In Pit 12  11  21  R. Gonzalez  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  62  1:39:05.313  104.593  168.325  1 Lap  In Pit 13  14  3  R. Lavin  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  62  1:39:06.671  104.569  168.287  1 Lap  In Pit 14  12  15  M. Valiante  Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone  62  1:39:12.519  104.466  168.122  1 Lap  Active 15  17  5  M. Haberfeld  Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone  62  1:39:29.948  104.161  167.631  1 Lap  Active 16  19  14  N. Philippe  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  62  1:39:51.287  103.790  167.034  1 Lap  Active 17  18  17  G. Smith  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  62  1:39:55.463  103.718  166.917  1 Lap  Active 18  16  19  T. Marques  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  60  1:39:09.038  101.155  162.793  3 Laps  Active 19  9  4  R. Hunter-Reay  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  58  1:40:07.224  96.836  155.843  5 Laps  Active FP finish position  SP starting position  # car number  LC laps completed