Bourdais also had the 16th-fastest speed into Turn 1, registering at 153.57 mph just as he lifted and prepared to brake. Power was fastest in the transition to braking, hitting 156.98 mph, but Bourdais’ drive off the final corner must have been hellacious, and his ability to go deeper into the braking zone was also noticeable as the other Lotus runners ranked 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th on the same sector.

Whatever he lacked on top-end power and speed changed from the braking zone into Turn 1 through the apex of Turn 2 where Bourdais was fastest of all. With the battle already conceded on the straights, Seb, with the help of his ace engineer Neil Fife, set about winning as many individual wars in the corners as possible.

“Whatever we did, we did, you have to say,” said an earnest Bourdais. “I just do the turning and the braking and use the gas; I go as fast as Neil makes the car go, so you cannot give the credit to only me. It’s not magic. Neil did an amazing job with the setup and it was my job to go drive it. I thank him for making the car so good.”

On the flat-out loop from the apex of Turn 2 to the middle of the long straight between Turns 3 and 4, Bourdais fell to 21st-fastest, one spot behind fellow Lotus runner Alex Tagliani, but with the twistiest section of the circuit up ahead, the real fun for Seb begins.

From the middle of the T3/T4 straight through Turns 5, 6, 7 and halfway through Turn 8, Bourdais was only beaten by Power. The Aussie completed the long sector in 13.10 seconds, just ahead of Seb’s 13.18-second blast through the right, left, right, right section.

With handling and torque more valuable than raw horsepower in this portion of the track, it’s clear that Bourdais’ hustle was complemented by more than decent low-end power from his Lotus engine. The initial grunt offered by the Lotus—and good handling from their own respective cars—stacked Tagliani right behind in fifth and Servia in sixth on the same loop.

Measured from the middle of the T8/T9 short chute to the middle of the long back straight, Bourdais actually begins to concede time—to the field and to the other Lotus cars—ending up 24th overall.

He jumps back to lead the Lotus brigade from the middle of that straight just past Turn 12, setting the 12th-fastest sector time. From the end of the Turn 12 loop though Turn 13 and then Turn 14—leading onto the front straight to where pit entry begins—Bourdais is the 10th-fastest car with a time of 8.99 seconds, but Servia pips him with a 8.95-second run, good enough for sixth in that sector.

Add it all up and a portrait of what the combination of a proper driving, a proper setup and proper low-end torque can achieve on a street course becomes clear.

The sweeping turns at Barber Motorsports Park won’t provide Bourdais the same kind of opportunity to make up for speed deficiencies this weekend, but once the series returns to street courses like Long Beach, Toronto and Baltimore, look for Seb to continue lighting up the sector times.

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. He also contributes to Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett on Twitter.