The former world champion blamed worn Bridgestone tyres for his second incident of the afternoon. "This is a fantastic feeling," beamed Alonso as the champagne corks popped at Renault. "The first safety car should have waved us past but it didn't," he said "Montoya sat behind it and that was that. The Spaniard's seventh victory of the year was a sweet success that evened the seasonal win tally with Raikkonen.
Ralf Schumacher scored a solid third after Fisichella dropped a place serving his drive-through penalty, Klien finished a strong fifth for Red Bull and Massa maintained sixth after a stern challenge from Webber. That earned him a race car of his own, as his departing team principal Peter Sauber promised him the reward as he crossed the finish line Button was an unhappy eighth. The next drama unfolded on lap 29 when Narain Karthikeyan crashed his Jordan heavily in Turn 13. Villeneuve had a lucky escape as he just avoided the wreckage, and there was so much debris on the track that another safety car period was inevitable This time the field queued up behind it until lap 34. Crucially, Ralf Schumacher, Massa and Klien all stayed out as all of the other leading runners pitted again, so that when the race resumed on lap 35 they were running second, third and fourth behind Alonso. Raikkonen overtook Fisichella during this round of pit stops, and the Italian's ploy of trying to hold everyone up as he came into the pits, as Raikkonen had done recently in Belgium, later earned him a drive-through penalty. Since that race the FIA had warned everyone that such tactics would not be accepted.
When Massa, Klien and the younger Schumacher pitted on laps 44, 45 and 47 respectively, Raikkonen finally had a clear road to Alonso. But by now the Spaniard was 13 seconds ahead and had detuned his Renault's engine Raikkonen set two fastest laps, but it was all too late. The disruptions of the safety car had worked against McLaren, and Alonso and Renault had things under control. Jenson Button, having pitted on lap 18, dropped from fifth to seventh, and David Coulthard also lost out as he dropped from sixth to eighth and had Massa and Christian Klien on his tail.