After the European Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso led the drivers' championship with 32 points ahead of Kimi Räikkönen and Jarno Trulli.

After retiring on the last lap of the European Grand Prix, Kimi Räikkönen was the 11th driver on the track in qualifying, and he managed to line up 7th on the grid.

Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello suffered a gearbox failure before the start of his qualifying lap, and was forced to abort his run.

Further back in the field, BAR's Takuma Sato made a small mistake, but did not lose a large amount of time.

As the race continued, the Renault's pulled further away from the pack, and Barrichello was constantly moving up the field, up to 15th position by the end of lap 8.

On exiting the pits, Montoya went too fast on cold tyres, leaving the track and allowing Alonso to retain 2nd position.

Mark Webber, up to 7th position through a very long first stint, pitted on lap 28, and fed back into the race 9th, just ahead of Massa, Heidfeld and Ralf Schumacher.

However, on lap 39, Alonso ran wide at the exit of turn 4 and hit the outside wall, damaging his suspension and forcing him to retire from the race.

Takuma Sato rejoined the race 24 laps behind, after the B.A.R team fixed his car in order to gain him a slightly better starting position in qualifying for the following grand prix.

Button, under pressure from Michael Schumacher, made a mistake at the final chicane, hitting the inside kerb heavily, which forced him into the "wall of champions" on the outside.

Montoya slipped into 2nd, slightly ahead of David Coulthard on track, although the Red Bull Racing driver had been lapped.

Meanwhile, Takuma Sato appeared to have a mechanical failure which forced him to spin at the hairpin, before the rear of his car caught fire due to overheating.