Sebastien Bourdais isn't used to failure, and the weeks leading up to the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach were a worrisome time.
His version of the new Panoz DP01 race car that everyone in the Champ Car World Series is using this season had some gremlins in the fuel system and transmission in preseason testing.
Then, at the season-opener in Las Vegas, Bourdais had the worst race weekend of his Champ Car career. He had an electrical problem on the first day, hit the wall in qualifying the next day and, after overcoming three tire punctures, crashed and finished 13th in the race.
"You do have some doubts after things like that happen," Bourdais said.
To get ready for Long Beach, Bourdais took a day early in the week to relax and refresh himself by driving his wife and baby from Las Vegas to Southern California in a motor home.
"It gave me time to think and just remember how good my team is," he said. "I knew we would bounce back."
Indeed they did.
Bourdais dominated on Sunday, leading 58 of 78 laps on the way to his third straight victory in the streets of Long Beach.
"The team didn't panic after Vegas, which was crucial," the 28-year-old Frenchman said. "A lot of teams could really blow apart after a weekend like that. We didn't. That race was like a bad dream. This is a whole lot nicer."
Bourdais, who has won 24 of 61 starts and three straight Champ Car titles, was certainly the class of the field. He started from the pole and raced away to a nearly 25 second lead -- about a third of a lap on the 3.2km, 11-turn circuit -- and appeared on the way to a rout.
But that lead disappeared when French rookie Simon Pagenaud slid into a tire barrier on lap 53, bringing out one of three full-course caution flags.
After pit stops by the leaders, Bourdais found himself trailing another French rookie, Tristan Gommendy, who was on a different pit strategy and had pitted last on lap 39. With surprising runner-up Oriol Servia of Spain conserving fuel and not pushing the leaders, Bourdais chose to be patient and wait for Gommendy to make his final stop.
"I made one try to pass Tristan and I decided it was better to back off and wait because he was pretty fast at that point," Bourdais said. "I didn't want to make a mistake and embarrass myself by winding up in the tires."
Bourdais regained the lead on lap 68 and stayed out front for the rest of the way, easily holding off Servia on a restart on lap 77 after the last caution period.
It's the longest winning streak at Long Beach since Al Unser Jr won a record four in a row from 1988 through 1991.
Servia, the 2005 series runner-up as Bourdais' teammate, started the weekend without a ride but took over for Paul Tracy after the 2003 series champion injured his back in a crash during Saturday's practice.
Servia started 14th in the 17-car field, but used an early pit stop under caution to take the lead on lap 32 when the front-runners pitted. He was then able to take a smaller fuel load on his second stop, on lap 38, and stay near the front the rest of the way.
When US rookie Alex Figge crashed hard into the tires late in the 1-hour, 40-minute timed race, Servia had one last shot at Bourdais. But the leader's Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing entry got a great jump on the restart and Servia had to settle for the runner-up spot, finishing 2.614 seconds behind.
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