Behind Servia was a fiery Philippe, who lost ground during the first stops, Power's teammate Alex Tagliani, a slow-burning Andrew Ranger, the recovering Tracy, series debutant Andreas Wirth, an off-form Bruno Junqueira, 2003 Surfers winner Mario Dominguez, Zwolsman and Dominguez's Rocketsports teammate Antonio Pizzonia. Bourdais ran 12th and would soon be hit with a drive through penalty for his misjudged move on Power while the second Australian in the race, Ryan Briscoe in the lone RuSPORT entry, ran 13th one lap off the pace after a pit road collision with Mario Dominguez and his own excursion in turn eight.
At the front Philippe was clearly the quicker of the two leaders and took the lead with a finely judged lap 34 move on the run into turn one, a situation made more dramatic by Servia's subsequent lock-up and brush with the rear of Philippe's car under breaking for the chicane.
Philippe quickly sprinted away leaving the rest to squabble behind him. And squabble they did with Tagliani wresting second away from an under-fire Servia on lap 36. Tracy followed Tagliani through at his second attempt on lap 37 and was quickly followed by Junqueira and a rapidly rising Dominguez.
By lap 38 Philippe had built an incredible seven second lead and chose to make his final stop on the following lap, giving Tracy the lead for three further laps before he made his stop. Although Tracy was able to exit the pits ahead of Philippe, the young CTE Racing-HVM was able to pass the 2003 series champion as Tracy battled with his new but not up to temperature tyres.
Junqueira and Dominguez assumed the top two spots until the Brazilian pitted on lap 44. Half way around that lap Heylen stuffed his Dale Coyne Lola into the turn eight tyre barriers to bring out the fourth and final caution period of the afternoon. Dominguez and a few other quick thinking teams managed to dive onto pit road before it closed whereas Pizzonia missed the call and stayed out to assume an unexpected yet temporary lead.
