IMSA Detroit: Bourdais, van der Zande win after four-way scrap

Bourdais, who laid on another clinic in qualifying, drove an exemplary opening stint before van der Zande brought the car home for its second successive win on the challenging 2.35-mile temporary circuit - the Dutchman having paired with Kevin Magnussen last year. But this was no walk in the park.

The Dallara-based Cadillacs were slightly favoured over the more nimble Acuras going into the weekend, despite the Caddys being saddled with an extra 15 kgs of ballast under IMSA’s Balance of Performance regulations.

The top three cars – one Cadillac and two Acuras – were separated by a scant 0.127s in qualifying, while after a breathtaking 73 laps of green-flag racing the top four – three Cadillacs and one Acura – were blanketed by just 1.663s. This was a cracker.

Bourdais looked to have messed up his chances of the pole when he slapped the wall hard at the exit of Turn 8, but incredibly the car sustained no serious damage and he was able to dip fully half a second beneath Juan Pablo Montoya’s track record to secure his fourth pole of the season.

Unlike at Long Beach, where an early mistake caused him to wage a sensational comeback, Bourdais was flawless as he eked out a margin of just over two seconds on Tom Blomqvist’s Meyer Shank Acura by the time they both headed for the pit lane after 36 laps, exactly halfway through the 100-minute race. Alex Lynn, in the second Ganassi Cadillac, was a further 18 seconds adrift when he pitted on the same lap to hand over to Earl Bamber.

Ricky Taylor had stayed with the two leaders before abandoning the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura’s fuel-saving tactics after 28 laps and committing instead to a two-stop strategy for himself and Filipe Albuquerque. Critically, the Action Express Cadillac team