 By lap 10 Alonso was 5.4 seconds off the leader.On lap 15 Alonso managed to pass Massa in the pitstops and chased Schumacher.He succeeded in closing the gap from 5.4 seconds on lap 10 to 4.2 seconds by lap 27 only for it to open up to 5.9 seconds by lap 34 after the two drivers encountered backmarkers.