As soon as it was open, the top five poured in
en masse, and suddenly the pressure was very much on. As the cars rejoined, however, the drama ensued. Both Kubica and Raikkonen successfully jumped erstwhile leader Hamilton – the
BMW and
Ferrari leaving their pit boxes literally side-by-side – but then as they waited for the red light to change at the end of the pit-lane, Hamilton, presumably not expecting the light to be on, slewed into the back of his arch-rival for the championship, removing both from the action on the spot.
In the subsequent confusion, the following Rosberg could not quite stop in time before nudging the back of Hamilton’s stationary
McLaren, and the young German had to go around for another lap before being able to replace his broken nose cone. As a crestfallen Hamilton trudged back to his pit garage, those less charitably-inclined might have recalled to mind his post-race quip in reference to his father Anthony recently writing off a Porsche: “How do you crash a car at 30mph..?”
All of that incredibly left Heidfeld in the lead from Barrichello and Nakajima, with the RBRs of Webber and Coulthard fourth and fifth, the
Toyota duo of Trulli and Glock – still duelling hard – sixth and seventh, and Force India’s
Giancarlo Fisichella inside the points in eighth place, whilst curiously Massa pitted again on the very next lap.
Within three laps Heidfeld had pulled out a gaping advantage of almost ten seconds, with Barrichello leading a train of cars behind him in second place, and Kubica in traffic a full three seconds a lap slower than his team-mate. Piquet – having been given a hurry-up over the team radio to keep pace with Alonso in the sister
Renault – spun, and on rejoining very nearly took out the following Massa for good measure.
