Ferrari celebrate great result

The French Grand Prix was the fourth win of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. Schumacher marked his eigth win at this circuit and gains a little ground on Fernando Alonso in the championship battle. With Felipe Massa in third place, the team is also in top form to move up in the constructors championship.

"This is a great result, picking up first and third places with Michael and Felipe respectively. We knew this would be a very tough race in which tyre performance would be critical and that prediction turned out to be true. The team did an excellent job, the drivers drove very well, the cars proved reliable and the Bridgestone tyres were up to the task in hand. The combination of all these elements means that both championships are still up for grabs. There are seven races remaining this season and as we have always said, we will do all we can to meet our targets. This victory is particularly significant for me: even if I am a European, living in Italy, I am happy to celebrate my thirteen years with this brilliant Ferrari team with a win here in France. In Maranello, we have managed to put together a group of people with great qualities, supported by exceptional technical and commercial partners and it is nice to be here together with them to celebrate this success."

"A fantastic result, even if in all honesty it was unexpected. We did not know how the race would pan out, especially as we had not been able to do many long runs over the previous days. For these ten points, I have to thank the great guys in the team and our exceptional technical partners, starting with Bridgestone. The whole package - car, engine, tyres - was excellent today. I got a good start and from then on I could run my own race. Now we have to keep this momentum going. The championship is far from over and these two points we have made up on our main rivals are very important. I hope we can soon make up more ground."

"I think this was a very good result for us, although of course I would have liked to keep second place. I was on a three stop strategy and Fernando was switched to a two stop race and that meant I was not able to fight with him on the track. I also had a lot of traffic in my second and third stints and this effectively spoilt our three stop strategy and cost me second place. But overall, sixteen points in the bag means we make up a bit of ground on our rivals in both championships. The 248 F1 and the Bridgestone tyres worked better than I expected, possibly because of the extra rubber which gradually got put down on the track."

"It's a really great result at the end of a weekend when the whole team did a great job. Right from the start of the weekend, we had opted for a rather aggressive tyre choice, which paid off from yesterday's qualifying. Then today we prepared and managed the tyres during the race. Actually, they were very good and on Michael's car, fantastic. We lost a bit of performance with Felipe from around half distance and we need to understand why. It was a shame, as his pace early on was very strong. Now we have to keep on moving forward, trying to improve race by race."