From there on, despite a brief fightback from Massa, Alonso sprinted away, with his eventual winning margin 8.1 seconds at the chequered flag. There was more drama further back, as Webber was increasingly struggling in the difficult conditions and coming under real pressure in the dying stages from Wurz in the
Williams. Indeed, just as the
Red Bull ace seemed to have it covered with a 0.6 second margin on the final tour, he made a small mistake into the last chicane and Wurz came desperately close to getting alongside the Australian, who was forced to hold the tightest of lines through the last corner to cross the finish line just three tenths of a second ahead.
The charging Coulthard was fast closing the pair down at the end, finishing a mere eight seconds behind in fifth to complete the best day of RBR's brief
F1 history and launch the Milton Keynes-based squad up the constructors' leaderboard.
The battling BMWs held onto sixth and seventh at the close, with an unusually scrappy Heidfeld narrowly getting the verdict over Kubica, while Hamilton spent the final laps chasing down the duelling Renaults, and though he would succeed in depriving Fisichella of his ninth place, Kovalainen would not be parted from eighth and the Briton ultimately came agonisingly close to nicking a world championship point after a race that had everything from lights out to chequered flag.
