Leading the field appeared to carry a curse, however, for no sooner had Wilson returned to P1 than his race ran into problems. While Heylen and Doornbos repaired to the pits, Wilson's car also appeared to die momentarily behind the pace car, catching Dan Clarke unawares. Having just fitted one new nose to Doornbos' car, the Minardi crew had to prepare a second for its other driver, while Wilson also headed pitward with damage to the right rear suspension, later revealed to include the toelink and driveshaft. His misfortune promoted Oriol Servia to the lead of the race, with Neel Jani - still suffering the effects of a throat infection - and Forsythe team-mate Paul Tracy behind.
Incredibly, Clarke was back in the pit just a couple of laps later, his new front wing now buckled under the nose of his car, an impetuous move at the hairpin on the restart having seen him clip the back of Legge's Dale Coyne entry. This time, there was to be no return for the Briton, Minardi having run out of spares.
The ran under green conditions for nearly ten laps, in which time Figge incurred his first spin of the afternoon after picking up a right rear puncture, possibly as the result of debris on track. The Pacific Coast Motorsport driver wasn't the cause of the next yellow, however. Instead, it was Legge, the third Briton in the race repeating Bourdais' earlier error at the 75mph turn two, but with more serious consequences as she clouted the wall hard. The ensuing caution saw both Doornbos and Dominguez duck in for a top-up of fuel before the lap 18 restart. The strategy was to have implications later in the race for the Dutchman, and it was clear that others were already attempting to conserve as much fuel as possible in the hope of utilising the amount of yellow running to turn the race into a two-stopper rather than the anticipated three. Graham Rahal, however took the need to save as much as possible a little too far, getting caught out by Alex Tagliani as he coasted into corners, dropping to fifth on the road.
