Buttons fortunes continue to wane

Jenson Button, who has suffered untold misery in his Renault these past few days, saw his fortunes continue to wane in the race as he twice ran wide at turn one in the opening laps to drop him into a battle with Irvine at the back of the field.

Up front, and with the Schumachers and Barrichello away and clear, it was up to Montoya and Raikkonen to provide the thousands of German fans with the real action.

On lap 12, the Colombian and the Finn produced wheel-to-wheel action at its very best as they pushed each other to the limit – and occasionally off the track – in vying for fourth place.

Montoya eventually won the day, but such jousting dropped him to 14 seconds off the pace of Michael Schumacher by the end of lap 17, and with the top three separated by a mere five seconds.

A lap earlier, Trulli was the first to pit, coming in from eighth and such had been the bunching of the field behind him, he emerged down in 17th.