Raikkonen leads Ferrari 1-2 in France

F1 Grand Prix, GP France, Circuit Nevers Magny-Cours

Kimi Raikkonen has won another GP for Ferrari after being pushed in the defensive by McLaren. The Woking based team was far off its usual pace of the last couple of races and were unable at all to match the pace of the leading Ferraris. Massa came home in 2nd place while Hamilton secured his 8th podium finish in 8 Grand Prix starts. Alonso, starting from 10th drove a remarkable race but did not get further than 2 points.

The French Grand Prix of 2007 will take place on under cloudy skies. There is a bit chance of rain during this race and that may be the only chance for Alonso to wash away the gearbox problems he suffered during qualifying.

Unfortunately for Sutil he is unable to get away from the grid for the warmup lap and will have to start from the pitlane.

At the actual start, Kimi Raikkonen does the best job by launching ahead of Hamilton placing both Ferraris in the lead of the field. Alonso on the other hand also made a good start and was immediately fighting to gain places. The hairpin at the end of the straight as a bit of a hickup for him. Kovalainen got hit in the back by Trulli. Alonso just managed to pass by without hitting either of them but in fact lost a bit momentum in the manouvre.

Trulli entered the pitlane later only to retire with a broken front suspension while Kovalainen could rejoin the track after some repairs in last place. Liuzzi and Davidson meanwhile heavily bumped into each other in the second corner after which both had to abandon their races.

Alonso continued to charge heavily in the first few laps on the softer compound. He quickly got past Rosberg but the BMW of Rosberg proved to be a problem. Even after 10 laps Alonso was still blocked behind the BMW Sauber and saw his soft tyre advantage slowly go away against the constant performance of the prime Bridgestone tyre. The leaders obviously went out of sight as they already had 18 seconds ahead of the world champion after 12 laps in the race.

In lap 17 both McLarens are already in the pit to change their tyres. Both men are fitted with the harder compound. Hamilton rejoins the track just behind Rosberg and is therefore 7th while his teammate is 9th with 10 seconds ahead of him without any car.

2 laps later Ferrari's Massa is also in to fit hard tyres. He can easily rejoin ahead of Rosberg. Although the German enter the pit in lap 20, Hamilton has already lost several seconds behind the Williams. 2 laps later Alonso passed by Fisichella to move up to 7th place after Fisico came out of the pitlane just ahead of the Spaniard.

After 25 laps, Massa is still in the lead, ahead of Raikkonen with just 1.9 seconds. 10 seconds further down Hamilton is third and a further 13 down is Kubica. Alonso meanwhile already charged up and rejoins the slipstream of Heidfeld. He now looks even more determined to pass the German.

In lap 30 Albers makes an incredible mistake after pulling away full throttle from the pitlane while the lollipop was still down. As a result, the refuelling hose is pulled loose from the refueller machine while also throwing away several mechanics. Albers sets his Spyker aside and abandons the race. His teammate who has just pitted ahead of him is also piling up mistakes as he was handed a drive through penalty for speeding in the pitlane.

And finally, although it took Alonso 5 more laps, he passed Heidfeld in the final last chicane before the new circuit part. Fernando was simply far faster out of the previous corner thanks to a totally different driving line.

Lap 38 marks the second pitstop for Hamilton. 4 laps later Alonso is also in and gets fuel to get to the end of the race. Just moments later Massa is also in but it is not clear at this time if he is running towards the end of the race, especially since both Ferraris are fitted with the softer tyre compound. Because of these stops, Kimi Raikkonen is able to take the lead ahead of his teammate Massa. The Finn has been faster during the second stint, even with a higher fuel load.

19 laps from the end Hamilton is again in the pitlane for his final stop. He is able to hold 3rd place but it confirms that Ferrari are without a doubt superior at this track.

With only 13 more laps Speed abandons the race with an apparent transmission problem. One cannot count anymore how many failures both Red Bull teams have suffered this season.

Alonso also keeps drawing attention to himself while again being in a battle with Fisichella for 6th place. Button on the other hand is driving an invisible race but may get his first point of the season with the troubled Honda. It looks like his team have found a partial solution for the car after developing a new front suspension and some other upgrades to the car. Together it is said to be good for 0.3 seconds a lap.