Bourdais held off Ganassi teammate Alex Lynn on the run down to Turn 1, but Tom Blomqvist in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 had to brake extremely late to dissuade Pipo Derani’s Action Express Racing Cadillac from passing for third.
Behind them, Tristan Vautier of JDC-Miller MotorSports deposed Filipe Albuquerque’s Wayne Taylor Racing Acura to take fifth, but they both gained a place on Lap 7 when Bourdais dived down the inside of a GT car at the hairpin but ran out of steering lock on corner exit and came up against the outside wall. He resumed a chastened sixth, 14sec off the lead.
