At Lisboa turn, Hiranaka appeared to lightly hit the wall and ricocheted into Pla's path. Pla swerved to avoid him but had no space to negotiate through and crashed. That caught out Pavlović, Derlot, Courtney, Van Der Merwe, Merszei and Kataoka. The safety car was deployed and track marshals worked to move the wrecked cars that were involved in the accident. Costa made a pit stop during the second lap as the rest of the field drove behind the safety car at reduced speed until it was withdrawn at the conclusion of the fourth lap. After the safety car was withdrawn, Montin made a brisk restart to keep the lead from Matsuura. Gommendy then was challenged by Karthikeyan. Further down the field, the faster Doornbos passed Carbone for eighth. The consequence of the safety car brought cars close together but they were more calm than before in spite of localised yellow flags in various areas. Gommendy fell behind Matsuura and tried to repass only for the Japanese to retain his hold on third. Gommendy tried again and overtook Matsuura for third. At this point, Kovalainen set the fastest lap and overtook Karthikeyan for fourth. Doornbos overtook Jouanny for seventh and Kovalainen passed Matsuura into Lisboa corner for third. However, Mastuura clung onto the slipstream of Kovalainen's car and returned to third place. Although Kerr passed Carbone for ninth, he made contact with the barrier and lost positions. Karthikeyan drew closer to Kovalainen as the faster Gommendy closed up to Montin. Lei's slower car delayed Montin and Gommendy had Matsuura, Kovalainen, Karthikeyan, Ide and Doornbos close by. Kovalainen could not find a way past Matsuura until he overtook him at Lisboa corner and Karthikeyan's subsequent pass was blocked by Matsuura. On lap nine, Bremer drove off the track at Lisboa corner and crashed. The following lap, Karthikeyan passed Matsuura and Kogure fell behind Carbone. Montin had now lapped Lei and tried to pull away from Gommendy with a series of fastest laps. Kovalainen lost control of his car on an uphill section from San Francisco Bend and damaged his car's rear wing in a spin. Kovalainen's steering arm was damaged and he lost fourth to Karthikeyan. Carbone was passed by Campaniço for twelfth as Ide overtook Matsuura for fifth. Doornbos put Matsuura under heavy pressure but he was not successful in getting past. Montin held the lead for the rest of