Vettel peeled off for his lone stop approaching half-distance on lap 32, allowing Webber to hit the front and rejoining not far behind Alonso, who had had a moment in the thick of battle and dropped to eighth behind Coulthard. When the recovering Heidfeld then passed Alonso on the road, the Spaniard fell into Vettel's clutches, but the pair got a little too close for comfort two laps later, when Toro Rosso appeared to tag
McLaren, spinning Alonso around and allowing Raikkonen to move ahead of the Spaniard.
While the world champion's cause appeared to have taken a major hit, Hamilton was not having things all his own way and, if anything, received an even heftier clout from Kubica as the Pole sensed a chance to pass the now more heavily-fuelled Briton. Knocked into a spin, Hamilton ceded spots to both Kovalainen and his attacker - although Kubica would later receive a drive-thru' for his part in the altercation - and then saw Fisichella and Coulthard slip by as he attempted to regain his composure. However, all four cars ahead of him still had to stop, leaving the Mclaren safe in the knowledge that he should retake the lead once the various strategies played out.
It took until lap 41 for the order to return to something approaching normality, with Fisichella the last to relinquish the lead and Kubica serving his penalty, but the race - and the championship - took an even more decisive twist just one tour later.
Still with the serviced Webber and Vettel between himself and his team-mate, Alonso had been pressing on as the conditions worsened, although his right sidepod was clearly carrying the scars of contact with the young German. On lap 42, however, the pace became too much as the world champion lost it exiting turn five at around 140mph, slamming into the wall before coming to rest in the middle of the track. Fortunately, the rest of the field missed the wheel-less McLaren, but Alonso's day - and possibly his championship hopes - were done.
