Overnight rain had washed the track clean of the rubber the teams had diligently been laying down all weekend, but that did not prevent most of the frontrunners -
Jarno Trulli excepted - from starting on the softer of the two
Bridgestone tyre options. Clearly unconcerned by the possibility of increased rear wear, Alonso continued to bolt into the distance, opening a gap back to team-mate Hamilton that increased by almost a second a lap.
Aware that the lighter-fuelled McLaren could get too far in front for them to do anything about, Massa and Raikkonen began applying greater pressure to the rear of Hamilton's car. Massa was the more impetuous of the two, pulling alongside the McLaren into turn one on laps four, five and six. Twice, Hamilton coolly rebuffed the Brazilian but, third time around, the slightest of errors allowed Massa a decent run up to turn four. As had happened a lap earlier, however, the
Ferrari man managed to out-brake himself but, where previously the two cars had merely swapped and re-swapped positions, this time he ploughed onto the grass, dropping not only back behind Hamilton, but also behind Raikkonen and
Nick Heidfeld, effectively scuppering his afternoon.
Raikkonen wasn't close enough to capitalise on the mistake and take a run at Hamilton, appearing content to remain a presence in the
McLaren's mirrors until the first round of pit-stops, even though Alonso was, by now, some eight seconds up the road.
Spyker's afternoon got worse on lap seven, when Christijan Albers pulled in to retire with his car smoking heavily. Gearbox failure was blamed, the Dutchman having struggled back to the pits after becoming stuck in third, but causing the F8-VII to overheat.
Robert Kubica was also an early pit visitor, the Pole thought to be the victim of a faulty sensor that was playing havoc with his traction control, but otherwise the attrition rate was failing to live up to expectation.
