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St. Petersburg's Bourdais Wins Race, Series Title

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The Associated Press

Published: October 22, 2007

SURFERS PARADISE, Australia - As usual, Sebastien Bourdais of St. Petersburg outdid himself.

Needing only to finish 12th or better, the Formula One-bound Frenchman won Sunday's Lexmark Indy 300 to clinch his fourth straight Champ Car drivers' title.

Bourdais took the lead for good with 20 minutes left in the 1 hour, 45-minute timed race and went on to become the first driver to win the race twice in its 17-year history.

'It was one of those races where I decided to have fun with it and give it all we had,' Bourdais said. 'To win the race, to win the championship, and be the first repeat winner in Surfers - what a day.'

He set a race lap record time of 1 minute, 31.145 seconds on his 58th lap, breaking the previous mark of 1:32.063 set by Cristiano da Matta in 2001.

Bourdais held a 58-point lead against second place Justin Wilson going into Sunday's race. Wilson finished second in the race.

Raikkonen Wins F1 Title, Taking Brazilian GP
SAO PAULO, Brazil - Kimi Raikkonen won the Brazilian Grand Prix and captured the Formula One title in the tightest race for the championship in 21 years.

Raikkonen won his first F1 crown by taking advantage of Lewis Hamilton's mistake on the first lap and a subsequent gearbox problem with his McLaren, combined with Fernando Alonso's disappointing run. Raikkonen erased a seven-point gap behind Hamilton going into the race to finish with 110 points, one more than Hamilton and Alonso.

The Ferrari driver took the lead with 21 laps to go, rallying from third in the standings to win the closest title race since 1986. Teammate Felipe Massa was second Sunday.

Hamilton went off the track on the first lap and finished seventh. Alonso was third.

There were some doubts after the race whether Raikkonen would keep the title, however, as Formula One's governing body - FIA - opened an investigation into possible fuel irregularities.

FIA called a meeting involving representatives from BMW-Sauber and Williams, whose drivers finished fourth, fifth, sixth and 10th, and if at least two of them were punished, Hamilton could have moved up to fifth and taken the title.

Nearly six hours after the race, FIA said there wasn't enough evidence to penalize the drivers or the teams.

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