Toronto ? If Sebastien Bourdais goes to Formula One next season, the Champ Car World Series will have plenty of reasons to remember him.

The 28-year-old Frenchman, aiming for an unprecedented fourth consecutive Champ Car title, grabbed the pole for today’s Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto by edging Justin Wilson with fewer than 10 seconds left in the final qualifying session Saturday.

It is his third pole of the season and the 28th of his Champ Car career, now in its fifth season.

Bourdais and Wilson battled throughout the 30-minute session, trading the top spot several times before Bourdais, the provisional pole winner on Friday, turned a lap of 58.288-seconds (108.393 mph) to barely beat Wilson’s 58.299 (108.372).

“The lap before that I made a big mistake in the esses and really messed it up,” Bourdais said. “I knew I only had enough fuel for one more lap and it was a very hairy one. But the car was good enough for the pole today.”

Wilson said he could hardly believe it when his crew radioed that Bourdais has beaten him by such a close margin.

The Englishman, already on his final lap when he got the message, thought he might be able to regain the pole but couldn’t quite pull it off.

“I had my fast lap going but, coming out of (turn) six, I slid and hit the wall,” Wilson said. “It’s disappointing. Maybe I was trying a bit too hard.”

Bourdais will fly to Belgium on Monday to take part in his third test for F1’s Scuderia Toro Rosso team since last December.