Japanese former Super Aguri driver Sakon Yamamoto filled the second Spyker car, replacing European GP leader, German Markus Winkelhock.

[11] In Saturday's practice session Felipe Massa took first spot with a time of 1:20.183, followed by Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Nick Heidfeld and then Kimi Räikkönen.

Hamilton and the rest of the front-runners led the way, and as the session ended Jenson Button, the 2006 winner, had bumped his Honda teammate Rubens Barrichello into the relegation zone.

In the second session, Jarno Trulli of Toyota led the pace early, but Hamilton and his teammate Alonso posted the best times.

Massa had worse luck; the Ferrari team weren't prepared for him to need a second run in Q2, and he was released into the pit-lane without being refuelled.

Joining Massa among the eliminated drivers were David Coulthard in 11th, Heikki Kovalainen in 12th, Alexander Wurz of Williams Toyota in 13th, 15th was Anthony Davidson, and 16th was Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Hamilton then pulled in for his final set of tyres, but the delay meant there was insufficient time for him to get back to the start-finish line before the chequered flag and the end of qualifying.

He refused to comment on the pit-lane delay, although he later explained that Hamilton had ignored team orders to let Alonso past at the beginning of the fuel burn phase, which had put the cars out of sequence for their stops.

[16] Lewis Hamilton led every lap of the race (the first time anyone had done so in 2007),[17] but had to withstand near constant pressure from the Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen, which appeared more competitive than it did in qualifying and practice.

Hamilton's team-mate Fernando Alonso managed to climb from his 6th place grid-slot to 4th by the end of the race, just behind the BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld.

Jenson Button and Vitantonio Liuzzi both suffered mechanical failure while the Super Aguri of Anthony Davidson was taken out after a collision with the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella.

The moment Lewis Hamilton crossed the finish line he was celebrated, becoming the first ever rookie and the only active Formula One driver to have achieved a Grand Chelem at the time.