Tracy, however, was made of sterner stuff, keeping the youngster at bay with a blend of feisty defence and judicious use of the 'power to pass' button, until Rahal was made to suffer for his own out of sequence stops by requiring a splash-and-dash with just four minutes remaining on the race clock. He would eventually come home in eighth.
With the second NHLR car gone from his mirrors, Tracy may have been expecting an easy ride to the chequered flag, his only concern being his own fuel levels, but rookie sensation Robert Doornbos had other ideas.
The Dutchman closed inexorably onto the back of the Forsythe car and, with decidedly more power to pass remaining, looked the favourite should it come to a shoot-out, but again Tracy defended for all he was worth, the Minardi car never quite close enough for Doornbos to warrant using the 'magic button' in his cockpit.
The late problems for Bourdais and Power, allied to Rahal's emergency top-up, promoted those behind them a place or two, with Neel Jani quietly making his way into the final podium spot after a solid, if uneventful, race.
The Swiss rookie had half a second in hand over Justin Wilson at the end, the Briton a little more comfortable with his gap back to Simon Pagenaud, who had started on the front row and looked on course to give Team Australia more joy until a long second pit-stop.
Alex Tagliani kept up his consistent start to the year in sixth, albeit well adrift of the top five. In turn, the Canadian held a useful gap back to the second Forsythe car, Oriol Servia once again unable to match his promising start to the season. Rahal and Power then sandwiched Ryan Dalziel in ninth, the Scot having risen from 16th on the grid.
Dan Clarke completed the finishers in eleventh, although would have been expecting a lot more having run in the top four at various points. The Briton's downfall was a spin around the same time as Bourdais' engine let go, dropping him down the order and a lap off the pace.
