Williams enjoyed another strong showing, led by Rosberg's presence in the points for all but 14 laps. Sadly, those 14 laps were the final ones, the German having to park his FW29 when the hydraulics gave up the ghost. His retirement allowed former GP2 rival Kovalainen into the points positions, but was not enough for team-mate Wurz to salvage something for the Grove team.
Remarkably, the German was the last retirement of the afternoon, with just four cars falling by the wayside, his exit and Coulthard's book-ending the final round of pit-stops. Having got the gap to Alonso down to eight seconds, Hamilton was the first of the frontrunners to stop, switching to the harder compound
Bridgestone for the run to the flag. Alonso, too, has the less-favourable rubber to contend with in the closing stages, but handled it better than his rookie team-mate.
While the world champion continued serenely out front, Hamilton's times dropped away by as much as a second a lap from what they had been, giving Raikkonen a sniff of second place. The Finn was clearly faster than Hamilton, lopping vast chunks off the Briton's advantage, despite running on similar tyres. The rate at which the gap was coming down suggested that the battle for second would culminate on the final lap and the pair duly rounded the final turn within touching distance of each other.
Hamilton, however, had driven with the air of a driver with far more than two races under his belt, and his resistance at the end reflected that shown under pressure from Massa in the early stages. Refusing to be flustered by Raikkonen's
Ferrari looming ever closer in his mirrors, he hardly put a wheel wrong, and had just enough in hand to keep the Finn at bay to the line.
