The safety car was deployed immediately, with Montoya making his way back to the pits for a new nose, which left Alonso leading from Raikkonen and Fisichella, with Trulli fourth and Schumacher now back into his starting position of fifth. The top ten was completed by a gaggle of drivers who had all made strong starts – with
Jenson Button, Jacques Villeneuve,
Felipe Massa,
Nick Heidfeld and
Mark Webber all having made up a number of places on the opening lap, Webber in particular blasting round the opening lap to make up six places.
Further back their were early problems for Midland as Tiago Monteiro and Christijan Albers tangled at the hairpin – with Albers forced to retire on the spot – while Frank Montangy wouldn’t last as far as the restart as his
Super Aguri gave up the ghost in smoky fashion just before the entry to the pitlane.
On the restart, Alonso maintained his lead from Raikkonen while Fisichella soon pitted to take his drive-through – with the pattern of the early stages soon becoming apparent. While Alonso and Raikkonen were trading fastest laps out front, Schumacher was finding his challenge slowed by Trulli, with the cars in third and fourth lapping up to two seconds a lap off the pace of the two leaders. Although Schumacher was all over the back of the
Toyota he was unable to find a way past and with Fisichella having rejoined behind after his drive-through, there was no margin for error on the
Ferrari driver’s part as he was well aware of the challenger lurking behind.
Right at the front, Raikkonen was waiting to pounce on any uncharacteristic error from Alonso, but with the
McLaren seeming to have the pace against the
Renault, it looked like the Finn had every chance of taking the lead on pace alone – drawing alongside on the long run down to the final chicane on lap twelve although he was unable to make a move stick as Alonso held the racing line. With Trulli and Schumacher now over twelve seconds behind, the fight for victory appeared to be set as a two-horse race…
