Sebastien Bourdais re-wrote the record books as he won the penultimate round of the ChampCar World Series at Surfers Paradise and with it claimed an unprecedented fourth straight title.

The 28-year-old Frenchman collected his seventh win of the season and the 30th of his career in a commanding fashion as, not for the first time, he used his speed at the final round of pit-stops to pass Justin Wilson.

The Newman/Haas/Lanigan driver's title broke the record of three championships he had previously shared with Bobby Rahal.

"We had a great fight with Justin when he short-filled and got ahead of us," said Bourdais. "Then we had to, you know, stay with him with a heavier car, and we pulled it off.

"Then coming to that last corner, it's just all the emotions flowing through your mind. Just you realize how much has come to you and how much you've achieved with these guys and you get the sense that it's coming to an end very closely now."

Bourdais inherited the lead when things began to go wrong for local hero Will Power, who held the advantage until his first pit-stop.

Team Australia waved Power out of his pit stall just as David Martinez was pulling his Forsythe Racing machine in. The ensuing collision bent the polesitter's suspension and dropped him well down the order.

But, with clearly the fastest car around the street circuit, Power sensed that a top-five finish was still a real possibility with two thirds of the race remaining.

It was not to be though, as he misjudged a move on Britain's Katherine Legge and was launched over the top of her Dale Coyne car and into the barriers, ending his race.

While this was happening, Bourdais was busy keeping on the tail of Justin Wilson, who had passed him for what was then third while the pair were stuck behind Paul Tracy - who was running out of sequence with the rest of the field all afternoon.

The key moment came at the final pit-stops. A call by NHLR to leave Bourdais out as long as possible while Wilson made his stop proved the right decision as the Frenchman reeled off a series of stunning in-laps and resumed the lead.

His eventual winning margin over Wilson, who was the only man in with a chance of denying Bourdais the title as the race got underway, was 6.775 seconds.

Tracy, who was recovering from a first-lap spin, looked on course for third, but had to pit his Forsythe car with three laps to go for a splash and dash - dropping him to ninth.

That gave third to Bruno Junqueira, who took his third podium finish in a row for Dale Coyne Racing.

Robert Doornbos' Minardi USA machine, Simon Pagenaud's Team Australia car and Conquest's series returnee Nelson Philippe, who won at Surfers last year, completed the top six.

Alex Tagliani and Neel Jani were seventh and eighth for Rocketsports and PKV, ahead of Tracy, while Graham Rahal recovered from a mid-race spin to finish tenth for NHLR.

Oriol Servia had looked on course for a podium finish after running second early on, but made a mistake while battling with Wilson for second, resulting in a collision with the wall and a visit to the pits for three laps.

Britain's Dan Clarke crashed his Minardi USA machine out on lap 13 while Legge dropped out with damage as a result of the collision with Power.

Eurosport