Not that Williams was having much to shout about, Rosberg still mixing quick laps with wayward ones, surviving a brush with former GP2 rival Kovalainen to claim a place on lap 20, but then dropping behind the Finn again with one of several off-course excursions. Team-mate Wurz was keeping his nose cleaner, but not making much headway towards the top ten, eventually dropping back behind his younger team-mate by the flag.
Kovalainen eventually finished ahead of both
Williams, in ninth, with
Ralf Schumacher,
Rubens Barrichello and the two Spykers completing the runners, and could have had something for team-mate Fisichella had the race continued for a few more laps. In the end, however, the veteran managed to keep eight seconds between the two Renaults, despite chasing Trulli's
Toyota closely for the last ten laps. The two Italians were split by just 0.3 secs at the chequer.
Massa was the first of the leading quintet to pit second time around, the Brazilian taking on the harder
Bridgestone rubber and temporarily handing the advantage to Hamilton. Contrary to expectation, the Briton was not the next man in,
McLaren opting to run him longest of all in the middle stint, despite his MP4-22 not looking entirely at ease on its option tyres.
Raikkonen and Heidfeld swapped second and third for fourth and sixth - split by the later stopping Kubica - when they pitted together on lap 41, but were easily able to move back ahead of Alonso when the Spaniard made his call, along with Kubica, on lap 43.
Hamilton, meanwhile, waited a further tour before finally changing to his last set of tyres, but almost immediately began to make inroads into Massa's advantage. Lapping at around half a second a lap quicker than the leader into the final stages, the question remained whether there was enough time for him to complete the overhauling and claim a maiden
F1 win.
