The order, however, remained largely unchanged, with Junqueira heading Wilson, Jani, Gommendy, and Rahal, although the American was being hotly pursued by the fired-up Heylen, who had passed Pagenaud shortly before the caution and gained another place by beating Bourdais out of the pits. Pagenaud, having also conceded a spot to Clarke prior to the yellow, emerged from the pits in tenth, behind team-mate Power, while Servia and Doornbos both made ground at the expense of Legge, who had held both comfortably at bay in the early stages.
Tracy, meanwhile, was done for the day, trailing the field in but not rejoining with them, the victim of falling oil pressure. The 2003 series champion was to be the only retirement of the day, capping a miserable couple of days that had started so well with a top three time in practice.
With the pack having mostly switched the black Bridgestones – Tagliani and Figge the only exceptions – Heylen continued his surge, passing Rahal on lap 18, before the American then ceded another three spots in one go, an error allowing Bourdais, Clarke and Power to move up.
Legge, too, lost ground, a brush with Dalziel into turn one seeing her run wide at the expense of three places, dropping her to last on the road, while Jani suffered perhaps the most bizarre moment of the race a couple of laps later when metal debris from a dislodged marker cone became embedded in his
Red Bull machine, badly affecting its handling. The Swiss driver dropped four places in the space of a lap, his challenge to Wilson all but over.
