Down at the back of the field, meanwhile, there was the unusual sight of the four-strong Brit-pack of
Anthony Davidson, Hamilton, Coulthard and Button running 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th, with the latter somewhat incongruously setting the race's fastest lap, until Massa blew that effort out of the water shortly afterwards to further extend his 4.5-second advantage over Raikkonen.
Hamilton, indeed, was already over a minute adrift of the two scarlet machines, and lapping some 2.5 seconds off the pace as the legacy of his earlier contact took a heavy toll. Whilst he may have fought back to second place from way down the pack following a spin in GP2 a couple of years ago in Turkey, a repeat performance in Sakhir looked like being an impossible task.
As Trulli began to edge clear of Rosberg, a new fastest lap from Raikkonen showed the Finn was finally starting to peg back his team-mate's pace. Right down at the rear, however, Coulthard and Button's duel for 19th place ended in the inevitable tears when the
Honda star got it all sideways and clattered into the side of the
Red Bull Racing machine, whose driver had seemed to open the door only to subsequently close it again.
Though both got going again after spinning in opposite directions, Button was missing his front wing and the consequent damage left him with little option but to retire, while Coulthard needed a second replacement nose in less than 20 laps.
Kubica unsurprisingly became the first man to blink on lap 18 – running very wide on his out-lap afterwards – whilst Rosberg's similarly early first pit visit was rather more unexpected given the young German's comparatively lowly qualifying position the previous day. The
Williams would slip behind Webber following the first round of stops, with Heidfeld closing the gap on team-mate Kubica and Raikkonen really getting the hammer down as he pitted one lap earlier than Massa on lap 20.
