Schumachers hold top spots

Ralf Schumacher had been gaining on Michael, but as the backmarkers started to be picked off he then primarily became engaged in a battle with Barrichello.

Once out of the traffic, though, he was able to pull away from the man from Sao Paulo and again reel in his brother, whose tyres were clearly fading.

Those on a two-stop strategy began to pile into the pit around laps 21 and 22, with Frentzen finally retiring on the latter as he parked his car in the Arrows garage.

Allan McNish then soon joined the list of retirements as his own bad luck continued on lap 26, with the engine catching fire, forcing the marshals into action with their extinguishers.

Button quickly joined his fellow Briton with what appeared to be a mechanical failure, before the Ferraris of Barrichello and Schumacher then came in on laps 27 and 28, emerging in 8.6 and 8.4secs respectively.