Paul Newman and Carl Haas moved closer to a landmark century of Champ Car race wins as
Sebastien Bourdais took his second straight success of the season by successfully defending his Grand Prix of Houston crown.
The Frenchman overcame a variety of problems to add victory to that which he took in Long Beach last weekend, starting with the decision to strip him of his fastest lap from qualifying several hours after the session had finished. Starting from the front row alongside new poleman Will Power - the source of the complaint that saw the penalty applied - Bourdais then incurred the wrath of the stewards a second time by cutting the chicane on lap one, but also got his breaks when it appeared that the race may turn against him.
Instead of being forced to cede his early lead to Power, the Frenchman had to hand over to Justin Wilson, who took advantage of an alleged brake test on the Australian to slip into second on the opening lap. While many thought that Bourdais would be asked to drop in behind the poleman, who had been most disadvantaged by the short-cut, he was only asked to give up one place, and quickly reclaimed the advantage from Wilson after the Briton had led for 15 laps.
From there, Bourdais ran up front until the opening round of pit-stops, although the Newman/Haas/Lanigan team revealed that he had not been able to hear its instructions owing to a loose earplug. While others adopted different strategies and took spells in the lead according to how their races fell, Bourdais returned to the front of the field for the bulk of the 1hr 45min race, but found himself trailing fellow Frenchman Tristan Gommendy as a lengthy yellow flag period took the race into its final quarter hour.
