As the second round of pit-stops loomed, Wilson and Bourdais began to home in on Power, the Aussie's red-walled tyres possibly starting to give up the ghost and allowing the black-rubbered pursuers to close the gap between them. With the track remaining green, however, the emphasis was now on who had achieved the best fuel management in the second stint.
The top three ran longer than the first of the stoppers, but then found both Jani and Jan Heylen exiting right in front of their three-way battle for supremacy. Unable to jump the backmarkers, Power was the first to head pitwards, leaving 2006 race winner Wilson out front, but still unable to do anything about Heylen ahead.
The Briton was in next time around, on lap 50, but Bourdais managed to stretch his load a further two tours, suggesting that he may also have been delayed by taking on slightly more fuel at his first stop. Whatever the intricacies, the Frenchman turned the tables on his rivals, returning to the track at the head of those who had have stopped.
Again, the pit crews had their say in the running order, with Power dropping back to fourth as Rahal received quicker service on lap 51 and emerged in front of the Team Australia car. Wilson remained second, between the two Newman/Haas/Lanigan entries, with Pagenaud bouncing back up to fifth, ahead of Tracy, Junqueira, Oriol Servia and points leader Robert Doornbos.
The Dutchman had struggled in qualifying, but expected more from his race after topping the final warm-up session. Instead, he found himself mired around tenth, battling not only Servia but also Minardi team-mate Dan Clarke, who had earlier survived a major off across the grassy infield without damage.
If Doornbos – the points leader heading to Edmonton – thought that that was bad, however, things were about to get worse. Shortly after Power had made an unscheduled pit-stop to get troublesome steering looked at, Doornbos was on the receiving end of a hefty whack from Tagliani, the Canadian keen to unlap himself on at least one rival.
