As the safety car stayed out, the teams prepared to pit, but as the drivers toured in
en masse – and the Ferraris queued up – Hamilton continued on, with
McLaren team-mate Kovalainen losing track position to Kubica in the
BMW. Webber was even more unfortunate – the
Renault engine in his
Red Bull Racing spewing smoke out of the back upon leaving the pit-lane – whilst as Alonso and Vettel left literally side-by-side behind Trulli, the uncompromising young German pushed the Renault across the white line.
Behind Hamilton, Heidfeld and Piquet sat in second and third positions – both having similarly elected not to pit – whilst as the safety car prepared to come back in again, Webber pulled off, becoming only the race's second retiree some 40 laps in.
As the race got underway again, Hamilton was gone – in the knowledge he needed to pull out a massive 22 seconds over Massa in order to still rejoin ahead after his second stop – with Kovalainen getting alongside Kubica on the run down to the hairpin, but proving unable to get past.
Vettel and Alonso were still going at it hammer-and-tongs for the final points-paying position, with Raikkonen behind the pair of them after having to wait behind team-mate Massa in the pits. A supremely brave move around the outside of Kubica earned Kovalainen fifth place back again, whilst Alonso's aggressive style in his efforts to get by Vettel saw him lose places to both Raikkonen and Rosberg – and slip back down to eleventh spot.
Three laps after the safety car period, Hamilton had an advantage of almost eight seconds over Massa, whilst Raikkonen simply drove all the way around the outside of the similarly-engined Vettel – showcasing the benefit of his
Ferrari's superior straight-line speed to great effect – and set off after Trulli ahead, with Massa critically still tucked up behind Piquet.
Raikkonen soon made easy meat of Trulli as the Finn finally seemed to wake up two-thirds of the way into the race, with Hamilton lapping regularly some 1.5 seconds faster than the chasing Massa.
