Edmonton, AB (My Sportsbook) - Justin Wilson won Sunday's West Edmonton Mall Grand Prix of Edmonton Champ Car event. The No.9 RuSport driver crossed the finish line 5.319 seconds ahead of runner-up Sebastien Bourdais.

The victory was Wilson's first of the season and third of his Champ Car career.

Bourdais brought the field to the green flag, but two drivers lasted just about 100 yards before disaster struck. Bruno Junqueira spun in the first corner and Cristiano da Matta hit the tire wall trying to avoid the Brazilian. Junqueira and Tonis Kasemets also headed to pit road for some repairs.

Six laps into the race and four more cars were in pit lane for repairs due to spins - Dan Clarke, Jan Heylen Nicky Pastorelli and Katherine Legge.

Up front, Bourdais opened up a margin of 3.010 seconds over Paul Tracy after 20 laps. The Frenchman continued to expand his lead by about two-tenths of a second per lap as the field approached the first round of pit stops.

By lap 35 when Bourdais made his way down pit lane, the margin was more than nine seconds.

Tracy inherited the lead, his first of the season, until he pitted two laps later. Bourdais returned to the lead, but the margin was cut to around six seconds over Wilson and eight second over Tracy.

Wilson was lapping faster than Bourdais and began to eat into the huge lead.

Was Bourdais having a problem or was he just conserving equipment?

After 49 laps the margin was just 0.396 seconds and Wilson could see Bourdais struggling in front of him. A.J. Allmendinger and Oriol Servia both got past Tracy for third and fourth, respectively.

Bourdais' pit was reporting a possible tire problem as the cause of the Frenchman's slowing times. Also, Wilson had used 30 more seconds of "push-to- pass" power than Bourdais.

On lap 55 Wilson got underneath Bourdais in turn 10 and the lead was finally his. The next lap saw Wilson more than six-tenths faster than Bourdais and he began to pull away from the two-time series champion.

At the 60-lap mark the margin was 5.354 seconds as he set a new race lap record.

Wilson pitted for the final time one lap later, giving up the lead to Bourdais with 24 laps to go. Two laps later Bourdais made his final stop under a yellow flag which he partially cause when he passed Alex Tagliani and the Canadian lost it into a tire barrier.

The opportune flag left Wilson in first place, but Bourdais was in second place, with the faster "red" tires on the car and more "push-to-pass" time.

The race would get back underway with 16 laps to go and the two clearly best cars took off down the track, but Nelson Philippe slammed a tire barrier in turn seven and brought out another caution flag.

That would leave Bourdais just 13 laps to make a move past Wilson.

Again Wilson and Bourdais quickly put more than one second between themselves and third-place Allmendinger.

Despite being on harder tires and having less "push-to-pass" Wilson was doggedly hanging on to the top spot and in fact with eight laps to go the margin had ballooned to 2.5 seconds.

It was apparent that Bourdais had nothing more for Wilson and barring a mistake Wilson was on his way to a victory.

Wilson was perfect over the last few miles and the win was his - the third of his Champ Car career. The win moved the former Formula One driver back into second place behind Bourdais in the overall standings.

Allmendinger, Servia and Tracy completed the top-five at Edmonton.

The next race in the series is set for Sunday, July 30th on the streets of San Jose, CA. for the San Jose Grand Prix.