Ferrari Dominates French GP
Raikkonen, Massa 1-2 in Magny Cours
Kimi Raikkonen leads a Ferrari 1-2 finish in the French GP. The Itlaian squad is clearly taking the first steps in mounting a mid-season comeback.
Ferrari’s new aerodynamic package paid off. They were fastest in Silverstone in testing and they brought their results to France two weeks later as the Scarlet cars of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa crossed the line first and second respectively. It was a dominant showing by the team in an attempt to come back into competitive form.
The improvement of the Italian based squad was already noticeable in the days prior to the race. Ferrari showed a consistent pace during the practice sessions. Come qualifying, Felipe Massa secured his fourth pole position of the season while Kimi Raikkonen managed a decent third as he was carrying slightly more fuel compared to his teammate.
The start of the race only tipped the scales in favor of Ferrari when Kimi Raikkonen managed an excellent start as he seized second place from Lewis Hamilton. From that point on, the two Ferraris were never really challenged as they remained at the head of the field for the whole duration of the race. Raikkonen however was able to snatch first place after his second pit stop from teammate Massa. The Brazilian apparently got bottled up by traffic in his out lap and thus compromised his lap times in his final stint.
McLaren, on the other hand, didn’t look like the team they were in the past three races. Although Lewis Hamilton scored an unprecedented 8th consecutive podium finish in his first 8 races by finishing in third, he was behind the race leader by 32.153 seconds. The rookie sensation was carrying less fuel than the Ferraris which meant that losing second place at the start already dampened his chances of challenging for the lead. Although Hamilton was fairly in touch with the scarlet cars for the most part, a last minute decision to switch to a three-stop strategy did not exactly work in favor of the Englishman as he lost only more time to the race leaders. Fernando Alonso also had a difficult race as he could only manage 7th place since a rare gearbox failure during qualifying forced the reigning world champion to start 10th on the grid. The Spaniard found himself battling the BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld and the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella during the race. Although the McLaren had an advantage, Alonso was also one of the earliest to enter the pits among those in a two stop strategy. The reigning champion thus had to nurse his tires for the final 30 laps and hence couldn’t make a late charge. This allowed Heidfeld and Fisichella to hold on to fifth and sixth respectively. Robert Kubica finished an impressive fourth in just the second race after his huge shunt in Canada.
In a Championship perspective, Lewis Hamilton still holds quite a comfortable lead with 64 points over teammate Alonso who has notched 50 after eight rounds. Massa has 47 and Raikkonen with 42. However, based on the outcome of the French GP, Ferrari has shown that the team is still very capable of making a late season charge. And with the next race happening in Silverstone in a week’s time, the Italian team might just have another renaissance going for them considering their impressive mid-season testing in the British venue.
But then again, the British GP is the home race for McLaren and Lewis Hamilton which means that anything is still possible. In any case, the season is turning out to be a classic battle among the titans of the sport.
