The two Spykers of Adrian Sutil and Sakon Yamamoto were both eliminated in Q1, along with Vitantonio Liuzzi in the Toro Rosso, Takuma Sato of Super Aguri, and, surprisingly, the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard's Red Bull.

So were Giancarlo Fisichella in the Renault, Alexander Wurz of Williams, the Honda of Rubens Barrichello and Coulthard's Red Bull teammate Mark Webber.

Robert Kubica took 6th in the BMW Sauber, while his teammate Nick Heidfeld broke the domination of the top 4 by McLaren and Ferrari, beating the Scuderia's Kimi Räikkönen to 4th.

The top three held station from the start, but Kimi Räikkönen's Ferrari jumped Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber and moved into fourth.

Lewis Hamilton, running second in the McLaren, had flat-spotted his tyres earlier in the race and complained about vibration, raising fears that it might lead to a puncture similar to what happened previously in Turkey, so the team decided to play it safe and pit slightly earlier than scheduled, on lap 18, dropping Hamilton down to 6th place, behind Räikkönen, the two BMW Saubers of Heidfeld and Robert Kubica, and Heikki Kovalainen's Renault.