As Glock pitted, Kubica had ten laps left to pull out the necessary 15 seconds he would need to re-emerge from his second pit-stop still in the lead, and once released his pace was simply stunning, as he lapped two seconds faster than he had been able to do behind the
Toyota. Playing in Kubica’s favour was the fact that Heidfeld still had his mirrors and hands full of Alonso’s ever-present
Renault, but that problem was solved shortly afterwards when – after going too deep into the hairpin one too many times – the former double world champion dropped it in turn seven, hitting the barriers and bringing a premature end to his charge.
That amazingly left Coulthard in third position, ahead of Barrichello, the most experienced driver in the field having to use all of his guile to fend off the challenges of Kovalainen and Massa in significantly quicker machinery behind. A little further back, Nakajima hit the back of the second
Honda of Button at the hairpin, and was forced into retirement after his front wing got trapped underneath the car as he entered the pit-lane and pushed him into the pit wall.
With 23 laps remaining, Kubica’s lead was some 22 seconds, and it had increased to more than 25 seconds by the time he made his stop, rejoining comfortably a couple of seconds ahead of the #3
BMW. Behind them, Barrichello was still doing an extremely impressive job of holding off both a
McLaren and a
Ferrari, or at least he was until Kovalainen dived past into the hairpin, but with the Finn being unable to slow his car down in time with no traction on the marbles on the exit, the opportunistic Massa swept past the pair of them in a superbly aggressive move that earned the Brazilian fourth place.
That left the Ferrari ace chasing down third-placed Coulthard – 7.9 seconds ahead with 19 laps left to run – with Button now also right with Barrichello for sixth place, and Glock completing the top eight at this stage.
