The field was released again on lap seven, with the leading order much the same as it had been on the grid. Massa, having made a textbook start, headed Raikkonen, with
Jarno Trulli heading Alonso in a repeat of row two.
Giancarlo Fisichella had gotten the better of
Rubens Barrichello to slot in behind his
Renault team-mate, but already had Schumacher breathing down his neck, the German clearly possessing more pace than many of those around him.
Temperatures on race day were some four degrees higher than had been expected, and that was thought likely to play into the hands of the
Bridgestone runners, especially as some of the leading Michelin-shod cars had based their choice of rubber on the cooler conditions of Saturday. The early running, however, did not bear out the theory, with only Massa, Trulli and Schumacher running strongly for the Japanese brand.
Barrichello held seventh on the restart, just ahead of
Honda colleague
Jenson Button - already up from 14th on the grid -
Ralf Schumacher and the
BMW pairing of
Robert Kubica and
Nick Heidfeld, the two Germans having been those to make contact on lap one.
Having already annexed four places in two racing laps, Schumacher Sr wasn't hanging around, and soon lined up Fisichella as his next victim. The move came at the start of lap nine,
Ferrari diving to the inside of Renault into turn one, having previously lined it up on lap eight. The red machine, however, twitched noticeably as Schumacher braked to complete the move, and Fisichella was back through in a flash. Things were clearly not right with Schumacher's mount, the seven-time champion snaking slowly out of the Senna S, its left-rear deflating rapidly.
