While one
McLaren was fighting for the lead, the second car was trying to recover through the field with Montoya having dropped down to the rear of the field with his unscheduled stop. Fighting for 15th with
Ralf Schumacher – who was struggling with a lack of rear grip in his
Toyota – Montoya had already missed the final chicane once, and although he would get past the German on lap eleven, his race wouldn’t last much longer as the Colombian became the first – and surprisingly only – driver to fall foul of the ‘Wall of Champions’, damaging his rear suspension at the end of lap 13 and peeling off at the end of the start finish straight, not the result he was looking for to erase the memories of his disqualification twelve months ago.
At the end of lap 18, Alonso continued to hold a slender lead over Raikkonen, with the three car battle for third dropping further back with each lap. Button held sixth ahead of Massa, the
Ferrari driver having moved ahead of home favourite Villeneuve despite being on a one-stop strategy.
Alonso and Raikkonen would continue to circulate within a second of each other before the Spaniard became the first of the leaders to pit, with Raikkonen setting about putting in some fast laps to try and jump into the lead when he stopped two laps later. However, rather than make up time, Raikkonen would lose it, when a problem with the right rear tyre saw him drop to over three seconds behind the
Renault when he emerged from pitlane.
In between the two leaders stopping, Schumacher had finally managed to get past Trulli for third but the fact he was behind both of the youngsters despite having yet to stop was an indication of just how much time had been lost in the opening part of the race.
Once all the drivers had completed their first stops, Alonso held a comfortable lead which he was extending lap-by-lap over Raikkonen, while Schumacher was now third from Fisichella and Trulli with Massa and Villeneuve dicing over sixth.
