Championship leader Lewis Hamilton was well aware that starting on the ‘dirty side’ of the circuit would not be beneficial at the start of the race and his fears were realised as Kimi Raikkonen blasted passed and into second position behind team-mate and pole-sitter Felipe Massa at the first turn.
That was pretty much it for Hamilton in reality, but out front the race for the win was an all Ferrari affair as they traded fast laps. Massa, starting from the pole position for the eighth time of his career, did not put a foot wrong and with Raikkonen basically on the same strategy in the sister F2007, there was no real opportunity for the Finn to make gains through strategy.
Massa took the chequered flag after 58-laps, just over two seconds clear of Raikkonen. The Ferrari duo battled hard until the second and final stop, but Raikkonen was keen to make his point on the penultimate lap as he set the fastest lap of the race.
Behind, Hamilton seemed set for a fairly safe third position but a puncture and subsequent tyre failure just ahead of his second and final stop dropped him from third position to fifth. This was a very welcome result for Fernando Alonso who scooped up the final podium position.
Alonso started in fourth position on the grid, but like Hamilton, made a poor getaway. Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld moved fourth and fifth, with Alonso demoted to sixth. The McLaren driver would later regain the positions in the first round of stops, but by the, Hamilton and the race leaders were over 15 seconds up the road.
Nick Heidfeld drove a solid race to finish fourth in the BMW Sauber, running a logical two-stop strategy. Team-mate Kubica however qualified with a very light fuel load and pitted on lap 13 and then lap 38 of 58. The strategy did not pay off and he lost positions in each round of stops and finished a disappointing eighth.
Heikki Kovalainen drove a strong race in his Renault, chasing fifth placed Hamilton across the line, having gained position over Kubica due to strategy. It was a similar situation for Nico Rosberg who picked up position from Kubica over the race distance to finish a solid seventh in his Williams Toyota, a second ahead of Kubica.
It was an eventful race for Giancarlo Fisichella. The Italian veteran started tenth with country man Jarno Trulli ninth. Heading to the first turn Fisichella struck the back of Trulli sending the Toyota driver into a spin. Fisichella would continue, eventually taking the flag in ninth position.
David Coulthard finished in tenth position in his Red Bull Renault. Team-mate Mark Webber held the same position early on before another hydraulics failure sent him back to the pits and into retirement. Webber was the only retirement from the event.
Alex Wurz made up ground at the start in his Williams Toyota and finished in 11th position ahead of Ralf Schumacher who used a one stop strategy to good effect to move up from 16th on the grid to 12th at the end. Toyota team-mate Jarno Trulli never really recovered from his lap one incident and was 16th.
Jenson Button started 21st following a Honda engine change and drove a good race to finish 13th ahead of Anthony Davidson in the Super Aguri Honda. Davidson made a poor start from 11th position on the grid and was unable to make up the ground again.
Tonio Liuzzi drove a good race for Toro Rosso Ferrari to finish in 15th position, a second ahead of Trulli. The team have very much pinned their future hopes on Sebastian Vettel, but so far in his short time with the team, the young German has yet to show the much anticipated speed. Vettel finished a distant 19th.
Rubens Barrichello finished 17th in the second Honda 20 seconds ahead of Takuma Sato in the second Super Aguri who in turn was ten seconds ahead of Vettel. Sakon Yamamoto had a lonely race to 20th, two laps down, in his Spyker while Adrian Sutil lost several laps in the pits with an issue before rejoining to br classified 21st.
Lewis Hamilton still leads the championship from Fernando Alonso, but the gap is now down to five points. Hamilton has 84 points, Alonso 69, Massa 69 and Raikkonen 68. The championship is far from over...