Alonso was the first to blink electing to switch over from a three-stop strategy to a two-stopper in the process which saw the 26-year-old rejoin the fray just ahead of the increasingly frustrated Hamilton, who must have been getting rather tired by now of staring at the rear wings of Renaults. That much was indeed evinced when Alonso ran wide, and as his former team-mate and sworn rival dived past, he gave the Spaniard a sideswipe, though seemingly without damage to either car.
Trulli and Kubica came in together for their pit-stops, rejoining in the same order in the battle over what was effectively third place, as did the two runaway Ferraris, Raikkonen seeming to have matters all under control and Massa getting baulked on his in' lap and getting flustered into the bargain.
One of the main beneficiaries of the first round of stops was Webber who leapfrogged Alonso whilst Kovalainen finally cleared Piquet after the Brazilian struggled to get any acceleration on the pit-lane exit, though both would gain a further spot by getting out ahead of Glock.
Down in 16th position, Hamilton made his way past the similarly delayed
Nico Rosberg towards the back of the field, with
Sebastian Vettel like
BMW's
Nick Heidfeld, yet to pit pressuring Trulli in fourth place. Following the German's stop, world championship leader Kubica closed onto the back of the
Toyota too, Trulli much like team-mate Glock, now out of the points looking to be struggling somewhat in his middle stint, whilst there was worse news still for Webber, who spun away fifth place and handed it back to Alonso once more.
With the halfway point of the race approaching and rain threatening again, Massa began taking chunks out of Raikkonen's lead, reducing it to just 3.2 seconds 36 laps in as the Finn lapped amongst the slowest cars on-track and his Brazilian team-mate kept the hammer firmly down.
