Houston, TX (My Sportsbook) - Sebastien Bourdais captured Saturday night's Grand Prix of Houston on the streets of Reliant Park. Bourdais crossed the finish line 1.238 seconds ahead of Paul Tracy.
The victory was Bourdais' second of the season and 18th of his career.
The second race of the Champ Car Series season started with Mario Dominguez leading the 17-car field to the green flag.
During the first lap Justin Wilson had a right-rear tire go down causing him to make a pit stop. Another lap one incident included Oriol Servia losing a piece of his front wing.
While Dominguez maintained his lead the story of the first 10 laps was Bourdais. The Frenchman, who started in fifth, found himself making an inside pass of Junqueira on lap 10 to take over second place.
A few laps later Junqueira was passed by Tracy and fell back to the fourth.
Up front Dominguez enjoyed more than a four-second lead on Bourdais. But that lead was quickly cut into by Bourdais. A one-second penalty accessed to Dominguez on lap 19 for cutting the chicane cut the lead down even more. Just before a caution came on lap 27 Bourdais "out-broke" Dominguez in turn five to take the lead.
The caution allowed for the first pit stops to take place. Bourdais stayed on pit road two seconds longer than Dominguez. The long pit by the Newman-Haas crew allowed Dominguez to take the lead back.
Dominguez led the field to the restart on lap 34. But a quick crash involving Nicky Pastorelli and Jan Heylen put the race back under caution. A few laps after the restart the next caution came out for a Katherine Legge spin out.
On lap 46 when the green flag finally appeared, Bourdais tried to make a push for the top spot. But his attempt to pass Dominguez failed so he ducked back in behind the Mexican driver.
After 50 laps of racing, the half-way point, the top-five read: Dominguez, Bourdais, Tracy, A.J. Allmendinger, and Alex Tagliani.
On lap 67 with Dominguez holding just a two-second margin he made a key mental mistake. In turn five he overshot the braking zone, slid off the track and lost his lead to Bourdais.
Tagliani came into the pits on lap 69 to start the last round of pit stops. Bourdais, Tracy, and Dominguez took their final pit stops on lap 71. This time around Bourdais had a clean stop and he came off pit road in first place. Tracy and Dominguez followed behind in second and third, respectively.
Bourdais started to increase his lead on Tracy following a lap 77 restart. Bourdais still led the field to the next caution on lap 87 for Oriol Servia.
The last chance for Tracy to pass Bourdais came on the lap 95 restart. But Bourdais got a great jump on the green flag and opened up a one-second lead. The Frenchman crossed the finish line ahead of Tracy on lap 96 with the race being shortened due to the two-hour maximum rule.
Dominguez, Nelson Philippe, and Wilson completed the top-five.
The next race in the series is set for Sunday, May 21st for the Grand Prix of Mexico.