THE ONLY WAY TO GO; Sebastien Bourdais wins one more time in the season's, and his, Champ Car finale.(rankings of automobile racing)

Byline: J.P. VETTRAINO

Observers might have thought that Champ Car did not want Sebastien Bourdais to finish the season and his series career with another win.

Yet if that perception in Mexico City worked against Champ Car's credibility, the reality only enhanced Bourdais'. Neither a controversial penalty nor an oddly long caution period kept him from claiming his 31st career win. The 28-year-old Frenchman will start his new job with the Toro Rosso Formula One team tied with Paul Tracy and Al Unser Jr. for second in CART-era wins.

"He's the best, most complete driver I've ever seen,'' said Will Power, who finished second at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. "He's not just quick. He's smart, and he's good on the engineering end. He works very hard at it.''

Bourdais' weekend might have started better. Unable to get a clear lap on Champ Car's stickier red tires during the final qualifying session, he lost the pole to Power and had to settle for his 46th front-row start in 73 races. While he expressed disappointment in his performance, Bourdais expected no problem getting fired up for his final appearance with Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing.

"It would be complete disrespect to my team to do otherwise,'' he said. "Besides, when I leave here, I know I am not going to win any races anytime soon.''

Things got worse for Bourdais 45 minutes before race time, when Champ Car announced that it would penalize him and teammate Graham Rahal for laying rubber over their starting boxes during the morning warm-up to improve grip during the standing start. The drivers lost 22 seconds of the 75 allotted for Champ Car's push-to-pass horsepower boost. It mattered more because the push-to-pass increase was raised from the usual 50 hp to 100 hp in Mexico City, where altitude reduces power to begin with.