As the luckless Kovalainen peeled into the pits with a left rear puncture – a result of having been lightly clipped by Raikkonen's
Ferrari in the first corner fracas – the safety car disappeared once more to leave Massa leading from a racy-looking Hamilton, whilst behind the pair Raikkonen wasted no time at all in getting by Alonso, fairly breezing past the
Renault along the straight as the Spaniard offered precious little resistance.
That left Alonso under pressure from the similarly-powered Webber in the
Red Bull Racing machine, with a slow-starting
Jarno Trulli hounding Coulthard hard further back for ninth place. Up at the sharp end of proceedings, meanwhile, Massa and Hamilton were trading fastest lap times between themselves, with the Brazilian unable to break away as the British star kept the pressure on. Such was the duo's pace, in fact, that third-placed Kubica and Raikkonen were left somewhat gasping for breath six seconds in arrears.
Kovalainen found himself stuck behind a defensive Sutil in the battle over 17th place – with team-mate Hamilton no doubt able to empathise after spending many a lap boxed in behind the other VJM01 of Fisichella in Bahrain – but the Finn finally made a move stick as he drove all the way around the outside of the
Force India in turn twelve, one of the circuit's tight left-handers entering the final complex.
Ahead of them, a supremely brave move from
Nelsinho Piquet saw the Renault rookie perform a Wall of Death all the way around the outside of
Scuderia Toro Rosso's
Sebastian Vettel at turn eleven, whilst Piquet's team-mate Alonso became the first man to blink as early as lap 15. Hamilton was surprisingly the next to make a pit visit at the end of the following lap – for a very short stop – whilst further back in the pack Kovalainen was making up further ground, passing Vettel for 15th place.
