At the same time as Raikkonen was departing stage right, Button seized fourth from Webber, while Rosberg came under pressure from
Robert Kubica, who had the unlikely train of Christian Klien, Tonio Liuzzi, Pedro de la Rosa and
David Coulthard in his wake.
Jarno Trulli was the leading
Toyota in twelfth, but had survived a tangle with team-mate
Ralf Schumacher in the turn one confusion, the German having dropped back to 16th as a result.
de la Rosa and Trulli were soon on the move and, taking their cues from the morning's GP2 encounter, proved that it was possible for
F1 cars to overtake around the undulating circuit. Coulthard and Liuzzi quickly fell victim to the charging duo, who then lined up Klien as the next target. Massa, meanwhile, had made the most of a lighter fuel load and a clear track to extend his advantage to three seconds over team-mate Schumacher, with Alonso paying for an early error as he watched the German disappear five seconds down the road.
At this stage, the relative fuel loads of the top three appeared to be the key to the race, with Massa reckoned to be lighter than either man in his mirrors, and therefore needing to open out a sizeable advantage before making his first stop. The opinion in the pit-lane, however, was that the Brazilian would be required to 'move over' for Schumacher in order to maximise the German's title chances, but the Scuderia also needed to ensure that he could slot back in between Schumacher and Alonso for the same reason.
