The order remained unchanged for the next ten laps, but Servia was getting impatient behind Jani. Determined to try and replicate Doornbos' getaway, the Catalan dived down the inside of the PKV car into the hairpin and appeared to have the position won until he ran slightly too wide on exit, allowing Jani to retake the spot. Undeterred, Servia tried again next time around, taking advantage of Champ Car's 'no blocking' policy to take the inside line away from his rival in an exact replica of his earlier move. This time, however, he ran Jani slightly deeper into the corner, giving himself the better exit and holding on to to P1. All the while, however, Doornbos continued to close in third, cutting the gap to leader to under a second....
Behind the top four, the midfield had concertina'd behind Power, the Australian holding off a growing group that included Bourdais, Pagenaud, the battling Heylen, Gommendy and the closing Rahal, while Junqueira, Tagliani and Figge headed the recovering Dominguez and Wilson, the Briton now trading fastest laps with Doornbos. When the hapless Figge again found the wall, Heylen decided to try his luck with an out-of-sequence stop, hoping for a full course caution to come on just after he had made it back to his stall. The Belgian's luck, already lacking this season, was out again, however, as Figge had managed to park his car in relative safety, allowing the race to proceed under a local caution. To then make matters worse for the Conquest driver, however, no sooner had he been lapped by Servia, than the Spaniard's team-mate
did bring out the yellows.
Tracy had been expected as the first second-time fuel stopper, but never made it back to the pits after his car coughed and spluttered to a halt at turn seven, immediately before the pit entry. It turned out that he had been due to make his stop at the end of the previous lap but that radio problems had prevented him from getting the call in time to avoid passing the entry road. Although one of the shortest circuits on the calendar, the Redback Raceway proved a little too far for Tracy who, having been pushed to his stall, lost precious laps before he could resume.
