In the six laps before the Trident driver finally made his call for fresh rubber,
Silverstone sprint winner Adam Carroll lost his best opportunity of reprising that success, allowing Bruno just enough of a sniff of eighth for the pair to come together at the first corner. The blame appeared to lie with the Brazilian, who never looked fully committed to the move, but it was the Ulsterman who came off worst, out on the spot after a seemingly innocuous spin.
Senna had not got away completely unscathed, however, the loss of a front wing endplate hampering his progress and bringing him into the line of fire from those immediately behind, with Vitaly Petrov the first to take advantage.
Hirate's pit-stop dropped him to sixth, but not before he had given team-mate Maldonado a run for his money into turn one, seeking fifth spot. Exiting on the inside of the Venezuelan, Hirate ran the sister car wide, but Maldonado braved it out around the outside to claim the spot. The places would be reversed eight laps later, however, as the Japanese driver took advantage of his less-used tyres to sweep past his team-mate and secure his best result of the season.
Senna was already out of contention for the final point when he was called for a drive-thru' penalty, leaving that battle to Petrov and co, the Russian eventually yielding to Javier Villa and the dropping into the midst of a scrap for the minor places - and grid slots on Sunday - involving Nicolas Lapierre, Roldan Rodriguez, Xandi Negrao, Sakon Yamamoto, Ernesto Viso and Ho-Pin Tung. Negrao and Viso had earlier been bottled up behind a troubled Andy Soucek, the Venezuelan coming close to riding over the Spaniard's rear wheel when getting caught out by a spot of early braking at the Veedol chicane, before settling for 14th on his return.
