Alonso's lead over Raikkonen was quickly re-established, but the Spaniard was unable to drop team-mate Hamilton at quite the rate he had managed earlier on. Indeed, the Briton was the fastest person on track during the middle portion of the race, closing on the leader and setting the fastest lap of the afternoon in the process. Clearly, the wing adjustment had made his car handle more to his liking, and the advantage appeared to have ended Raikkonen's hopes of claiming a second straight win for
Ferrari unless fate intervened.
Sepang is reputed to be the toughest place to visit for an
F1 race, not because the circuit is particularly tricky, but because the conditions are so oppressive. Rain that had been forecast pre-race never arrived, leaving the drivers to combat heat and humidity, but there were few mistakes to report as the result of fatigue. Instead, it was mechanical components that appeared to wilt first, with Kubica into the pits ahead of schedule for a second time, this time for a new front wing to accompany a change of tyres. The alterations did little to help the Pole's cause, however and, after a late off, he trailed in 18th, having been lapped by
BMW team-mate Heidfeld.
Coulthard's late-stopping strategy also failed to pay off, as the Scot suffered a reoccurrence of the bizarre problem that blighted his Friday. A promising afternoon for the
Red Bull driver ended when he parked a RB3 in which the steering column again began fouling the pedals, making it impossible to drive either competitively or safely. Team-mate Webber continued without problems, meanwhile, but was probably not amused by the irony of chasing down Alex Wurz, the Austrian at the wheel of the
Williams Webber decided to forsake even before the end of 2006. The pair ran nose-to-tail for a long time, before Webber faded to three seconds behind his rival.
