Scheider and Jarvis pitted next time around, with Rockenfeller like Audi colleague Legge also losing time when he made his visit and the Ingolstadt manufacturer's Red Bull stars Tomczyk and Ekström continuing to motor on out front. Indeed, the former's first pit-stop at the end of lap 31 was the fastest of the race to-date, as Engel went off-piste for the second time.

Green running wide at Paddock allowed Tomczyk past to chase after Spengler in the battle over fourth place, before the Briton fought back in an effort to regain the position, whilst Ekström continued on, now just over eight seconds clear of the closing Scheider as the halfway mark approached, with di Resta remaining well in contention in third.

Indeed, so long did Ekström remain on-track before pitting, that Schumacher, Kristensen, Green and Tomczyk all came in to make their second mandatory stops before he had even made his first, and di Resta got the gap to erstwhile race leader Scheider down to under a second for the first time since the start of the race.

Spengler regained the track following his second stop right alongside Tomczyk, the Canadian just getting the nod after the pair ran side-by-side all the way to Druids. There was similarly good news for di Resta, who came out again in front of a four-car train by the narrowest of margins, but team-mate Schneider – having fought his way up into the points – was less fortunate, receiving a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit-lane.

With Ekström finally pitting for the first time on lap 43, Albers and Lauda exchanged bodywork paint in a robust scrap further down the order, whilst Tomczyk found himself held up by the lapped Stoddart in his pursuit of Spengler, with Green now ahead of the pair of them in fourth. Tomczyk and Spengler even made contact as they duelled over fifth place – with the former clearly feeling he was the quicker of the pair, and trying every which way to find a means to get by.

Legge then went off through the gravel at Druids, losing part of her bodywork and very nearly turning into the side of the Mercedes of Paffett on regaining the track, with the McLaren-Mercedes F1 test driver and Jarvis continuing to dispute eighth place and the final points' position.

On lap 56 Tomczyk finally found a way past his quarry, bravely going all way around outside of Spengler through Paddock Hill Bend to pinch the position, whilst team-mate Ekström pitted for the second time a handful of tours later, and upon rejoining did so in third position, narrowly ahead of Green, who now had 21 laps remaining to try to deprive the Swede of the bottom step on the rostrum.

Schumacher lost a position to Albers by shooting off-track at Paddock Hill Bend, as duels raged up and down the order, with Kristensen now doing his damndest to wrest sixth place away from Spengler as the Audis came on increasingly strong as the race progressed.

With 18 laps left to run, though, it was di Resta who was applying the pressure, homing in to within under a second of long-time leader Scheider, with Schneider closing in onto the back of Jarvis to make it a three-way scrap over the race's last point, headed by Paffett.

The inspired Ekström, meanwhile, was now lapping quickest of anybody on the track, with side-by-side action from Audi team-mates Jarvis, Winkelhock and Prémat right as the race leaders came up to lap the trio badly delaying Scheider and allowing di Resta to close to just three tenths of a second, though he would lose a fraction again when Winkelhock fought back and tagged the Mercedes, for which the German would receive a driving standards flag.