In the Friday morning practice session, Kimi Räikkönen was the fastest with a time of 1:33.162, followed by his teammate Felipe Massa. Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso of McLaren were third and fourth. Räikkönen was again fastest in the afternoon session with a time of 1:33.527, with Hamilton and Robert Kubica separating the two Ferraris. Vitantonio Liuzzi achieved an 8th-place result in the first practice.
In the third practice session, Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time, preventing Räikkönen from being fastest in all three sessions by six thousandths of a second. Nick Heidfeld was third, Kubica fourth, Anthony Davidson fifth, and Massa completed the top six.
Qualifying took place in temperatures over 34 °C, with a dry track despite a small shower after morning practice. In Part One, both Ferraris set the early pace, recording laps under 1:33.000. The drivers eliminated were Takuma Sato, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Scott Speed, Christijan Albers, Adrian Sutil, and David Coulthard, whose Red Bull suffered a gearbox problem.
In Part Two, Massa led the pace, with both Ferraris setting times under 1:32.000, separated by Hamilton's McLaren. Jenson Button was slowest in this session. Other drivers eliminated were Rubens Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, Anthony Davidson, Heikki Kovalainen, and Alexander Wurz.
In the final part of qualifying, Massa improved his time to 1:32.652, securing pole position. Hamilton qualified second, just under three tenths slower than Massa, placing him on the front row for his third Formula One race. Kimi Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso made up the second row, followed by Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica in fifth and sixth. Giancarlo Fisichella and Mark Webber were on row four, with Jarno Trulli and Nico Rosberg completing the top ten.
At the start, the two leaders maintained their positions, and Alonso passed Räikkönen into the second corner to take third. A collision in turn four involved Adrian Sutil, Jenson Button, and Scott Speed, with Button and Speed retiring. Sutil returned to the pits, and the Safety Car was deployed.
Vitantonio Liuzzi received a drive-through penalty on lap nine for overtaking under a safety car. On the same lap, Rosberg had an off-track excursion, losing a place to Coulthard. After the first round of pit stops, the front two positions remained the same, but Räikkönen regained third place from Alonso. Alonso then began to lose ground and was passed by Heidfeld, remaining behind the BMW for the rest of the race. The Renaults also struggled, with Coulthard overtaking Fisichella. Both Red Bulls retired in quick succession, promoting Trulli and Fisichella into the points.
Massa won the Grand Prix, finishing 2.3 seconds ahead of Hamilton.
After the race, Alonso, Räikkönen, and Hamilton were equal on points. The last time the top three drivers were level on points was in 1950 after the Indianapolis 500. By finishing second, Lewis Hamilton became the first driver in Formula One history to finish on the podium in each of his first three World Championship Grands Prix. The previous record was two consecutive podium finishes, achieved by Peter Arundell in the 1964 season.
Gallery · 1 related image
