Those stops freed Raikkonen up at last, whilst Massa was the next to make a pit visit, with Kovalainen in a lap later still, rejoining between the duelling Glock in the Toyota and the BMW-Sauber of a combative
Nick Heidfeld. The latter got a run on the
McLaren around the outside of the hairpin but could not make the move stick as his Finnish rival held his nerve, with
Scuderia Toro Rosso's Sébastien Bourdais retaining a watching brief behind.
Raikkonen's later stop enabled the joint world championship leader to leapfrog Trulli, whilst Vettel did likewise to a clearly frustrated, soft-rubbered Alonso, with Webber not far behind the pair. Amongst the top eight, third-placed Glock and Heidfeld two spots behind were the only drivers still yet to pit for the first time – and both having been able to choose their own strategy after lining up respectively eleventh and twelfth on the grid on Saturday.
Heidfeld was the first of them to make his stop, with Glock going almost 20 laps in before following suit, handing third place back to Kovalainen and rejoining not far behind team-mate Trulli and narrowly in front of Vettel and Alonso, demoting the Spaniard a further place – and, crucially, out of the points. Though the former – no doubt spurred on by the support of his home fans in the grandstands – nipped back past Glock before the lap was out, still it was an impressive gain for the Toyota ace, and comfortably validated his long first stint.
Further down the order,
Rubens Barrichello put a move on
Honda team-mate Button in their own private internecine battle, whilst Raikkonen began to slowly gain ground on Kubica in fourth, and Vettel was informed that he was running three laps longer than Trulli just ahead of him.
With 32 laps remaining – just after half distance – Glock suffered a heavy shunt in the
Toyota, as his right rear suspension failed coming out of the final corner and sent the German smashing heavily into the pit wall, his TF108 disintegrating as bodywork flew everywhere and bringing out the safety car.
