Initial speculation suggested the two cars had made the briefest of contacts as Fisichella attempted to defend, but later examination showed that the cut in the tyre had been made by debris left over from Rosberg's off. Whatever the cause, however, Schumacher was left to limp almost the entire 4.3km distance back to the pits with his tyre disintegrating. The entire field had passed by the time he made it back to the pits, but the prolonged tour had been worth it as the
Ferrari was hardly damaged. The team took the opportunity to refuel as well as fit fresh rubber, leaving Schumacher out of sequence with his rivals, and adding a new twist to a championship battle many expected to have been extinguished.
It remained a tall order for Schumacher, with Alonso apparently comfortable in fourth, and still 19 cars for the German to get through if he was to keep his side of the equation and win the race. His task was eased almost immediately, however, as
both Toyotas pulled in to retire within a lap of each other, the victims of identical rear suspension problems.
The sudden exit of the white-and-red machines elevated Alonso to third, with Fisichella, Barrichello, Button, Kubica and Pedro de la Rosa completing the scoring positions, the latter having disposed of Heidfeld. Further back, the Toro Rosso pairing of
Scott Speed and Tonio Liuzzi were running respectably, both ahead of
David Coulthard and Robert Doornbos, with
Super Aguri's
Takuma Sato and Spyker's Christijan Albers mixing it with the
Red Bull cars. DC was not long for the fight, however, complete a quintet of early retirements when he, too, pulled in, this time with gearbox problems that left him without fourth.
Surprisingly, that was it in terms of retirements until eight laps from the end, when Heidfeld's first lap brush with
Ralf Schumacher finally caught up with him, suspected suspension failure pitching the
BMW Sauber into the tyre wall at turn one. With no-one else stopping ahead of him, Schumacher Sr had his work cut out if he was to even sniff an eighth world title...
