Bourdais, Tracy Lock Horns Again

Pole-sitter Bourdais had narrowly led the opening stint, but Tracy's Forsythe Racing team decided to gain an advantage by short-fuelling his car at the first pitstop.

The two rivals left the pitlane wheel to wheel, with Bourdais edging slightly ahead due to his extra momentum. With the rules requiring drivers exiting the pits to keep two wheels inside the 'blend line' on the inside of the first corner, there was no room for them to run side-by-side back onto the track.

Tracy's front wing hit Bourdais' right rear wheel as the Newman/Haas driver tried to claim the advantage while staying within the blend line, giving Bourdais a puncture and ripping the left-side front wing from the Tracy's Lola.

"We got a run leaving the pits but he stayed there and I had to keep two wheels under the (blend) line," said the Frenchman.

"He probably didn't realise I was not going to be able to move to the left otherwise I would have been penalised.

"I didn't see the video but I think I was clearly in front because his front wing and my right rear tyre touched. I was almost a car length ahead of him."

Tracy had a slightly different view of the incident.

"Sebastien came past me after we crossed the pit exit line and chopped across my nose, breaking my left front wing off and giving himself a flat," he said.

Champ Car's vice-president of operations Tony Cotman decided not to penalise either driver.

"It's a very close issue," he explained. "They were leaving the pitlane at very close quarters and it's one of those things. It's a racing incident."

Tracy continued to lead the race despite his wing damage, only to run out of fuel when a full-course yellow closed the pits just as he was coming in for his final stop.

Under the 2005 rules, the pits are closed on the first lap of a yellow to stop drivers racing back to the pitlane while marshals are attending to dangerous situations.

"I stayed on track hoping I could nurse it around one more lap but it died about two seconds after I made my choice," said Tracy.

The Canadian revealed that he would have continued to race with his front wing missing even if he had made it to the pits.

"We decided that it wasn't going to be worthwhile to take the time to change the nose so we were just going to pit for fuel and tyres on the final stop and see if we could hold them off," he said.