Both Tracy and Allmendinger were forced to pit again but while Tracy would soon embark on a typically tenacious fight up the leaderboard, Allmendinger's day would come to an end on lap 19 when he clouted the turn three wall in an effort to regain some of his lost positions and retired on the spot.
Allmendinger's retirement sealed the championship for Bourdais, who was now running fourth behind Power, new leader Jan Heylen who had yet to pit and Heylen's fellow rookie Charles Zwolsman who pitted under green flag conditions on lap eleven.
With the pressure now off him Bourdais could now afford to take a few risks in his efforts to get by Power, who elicited a huge cheer from every Aussie filled grandstand he passed on his way around the tortuous 2.795-mile 12-turn street course. However the risk he took heading down towards turn three on lap 28 wasn't the one the home crowd was hoping for, as Bourdais locked his front tyres as he attempted to take the inside line and slid past Power towards the escape road. With nowhere, and no room to go Power clipped the rear of Bourdais' car and damaged his left front steering arm.
While Bourdais was able to get his car turned around and back into the race without damage, Power slid to a halt at the next corner, his steering seemingly ruined. This brought out the yellow flags as Power recovered to the pits where, against all the odds Power's team were able to hammer the bent arm back into reasonable shape and get their driver back into the race. Sadly in the process of doing so Power lost a lap to the leaders and now armed with a less than straight car, his fairytale weekend was over.
With Zwolsman choosing this interlude in which to make his first stop and Bourdais at the tail of the lead lap following a precautionary stop, Oriol Servia led a very different looking leaderboard to the lap 32 restart.
