With Raikkonen nipping past Webber into the first turn after the Australian ran straight on immediately upon rejoining the race, battle was back on again at the front with the Finn just six seconds adrift of his leading team-mate. The Renaults were the biggest losers of the stops, with Kovalainen and Fisichella coming in fifth and sixth respectively and rejoining down in eighth and eleventh, while Heidfeld exiting the pits right alongside team-mate Kubica would undoubtedly have been the catalyst for a rather nervous moment for
BMW Motorsport Director Dr Mario Theissen…
The unfortunate Winkelhock would pull off with an engine failure after a sparkling debut that was surely beyond even the young German's wildest dreams, while Heidfeld once again got a little over-excited in the queue behind Coulthard for seventh, harpooning
Ralf Schumacher into the final turn after the
Toyota driver had run slightly wide on the entry, punting his aggrieved countryman out of the race.
The Finns were now irrefutably the main men on the move, with Raikkonen inexorably hunting down the two leaders and closing right onto the back of Alonso as Massa began to edge clear. A little further back, having dived past Wurz with a neat move down the inside into turn one Kovalainen began to harry Webber for fourth.
Unable to get past the
Red Bull,
Renault brought its young charge in for an early stop, while
Takuma Sato's retirement brought Hamilton up into 14th place and, though he may have been a gaping 92 seconds in arrears, the fastest man on the track.
