Up front, meanwhile, Hamilton was doing his damndest to relieve Raikkonen of his inherited lead – but could never get to closer than about eight tenths of a second of his quarry as he ran in the dirty air of the Finn's Ferrari – with Massa holding a watching brief in a slightly distant third and fourth-placed Alonso the quickest driver on the track, though losing out in the high-speed sections of the circuit.

Further back, Kovalainen was continuing to recover, moving past both Timo Glock and Nick Heidfeld into the top ten, whilst Trulli went boldly around the outside of Barrichello into 14th place. Following his bright start on the intermediate rubber, Piquet subsequently lost out to Mark Webber, Kovalainen – bravely all the way around the outside of the Renault rookie at the fearsomely-fast Blanchimont corner – and Sebastian Vettel.

As Raikkonen attempted to break Hamilton's spirit with a new fastest lap of the race, Massa fell ever-further away in third and Bourdais began to slip back into the clutches of Webber's Red Bull Racing, as Kovalainen – the third-quickest man on the track behind the two leaders – closed inexorably in on the three-way battle over fifth place, going all the way around the outside of Kubica on the run down to Les Coombes for sixth.

Adrian Sutil then shot across the grass and into the gravel trap on the opposite side of the track at the Fagnes chicane, as Hamilton responded to the gauntlet thrown down by Raikkonen by setting a new fastest lap of his own on lap ten, as he kept the pressure firmly on his Ferrari adversary.

Kovalainen's charge, though, would soon come unstuck as he made a clumsy half-hearted attempt to get past Webber into the Bus-Stop, seeing him spin the RBR around and earning himself a drive-through penalty for his troubles into the bargain. That error allowed Kubica back past the McLaren again, and Heidfeld past Webber, and as Hamilton and Massa pitted together at the end of lap eleven, the former rejoined critically mid-traffic – and right behind his team-mate.

Fortunately for the Woking-based outfit, Raikkonen too was in earlier than expected next time around, and though the reigning world champion's stop was three tenths of a second slower than that of Hamilton, with the Briton still tucked up behind Kubica and Kovalainen – and if anything being backed inadvertently towards Massa – his lead was not just comfortably maintained, but even extended to almost a full six seconds.

Massa's subsequent stop at the end of lap 13 promoted Q1 star Bourdais up into second place for STR, as the rejuvenated Frenchman continued to duel it out with Kubica behind, and Piquet became the race's first retiree as he spun his Renault into the crash barriers after changing over to dry tyres at his first pit-stop.

Kovalainen rejoined all the way down in 14th spot following his drive-through, ironically right behind the second Red Bull of Coulthard, no doubt giving the Milton Keynes-based squad cause for concern that history may just repeat itself. The Finn was taking no such chances second time around, however, as Vettel brought himself into play with a long first stint that saw the STR ace run as high as fourth, before feeding out into an all-German scrap over seventh place between the one-stopping Glock and Heidfeld.

Fellow German Rosberg was also running up inside the top ten following Williams' qualifying woes [see separate story – click here], as Heidfeld went all the way around the outside of Toyota rival Glock for P8 and the final points-scoring position.

Hamilton was now pulling away from the chasing Massa but still unable to close the gap on the sister F2008 of Raikkonen in the lead, whilst Barrichello became retirement number two when he parked his Honda after a loss of sixth gear led to an over-revving engine.