The Complete 2008 French GP Review

After the madness of Monte Carlo and Montreal, Ferrari just wanted a straightforward, no-nonsense weekend to demonstrate that they still had the edge in the 2008 title battle, and to accumulate some points to make up for those they had recently missed out on.

Sure enough, they claimed their second consecutive French Grand Prix one-two finish, but it was not without drama - despite Magny-Cours' reputation as the home of the soporific non-event.

For while Felipe Massa took victory and consequently headed home with the points lead for the first time in his career, he only did so after his teammate Kimi Raikkonen suffered a bizarre exhaust glitch while leading, and then had to cling on to his advantage during a nerve-wracking late-race rain shower.

This may have been yet another dominant Ferrari one-two, but few such results have given the team so many palpitations.

"For sure we were very worried, no doubt," said team boss Stefano Domenicali. "It was a long race to finish, maybe (we) lost a lot of years and a lot of hair but that's part of the game.

"We had started with the aim of securing the double and we managed it. It proves we have all the potential to do very well, but it also confirms that we cannot allow ourselves not to be perfect in every detail, especially on the reliability front."

Massa graciously admitted that Raikkonen had him beaten before part of the Finn's exhaust system began to detach itself.

It looked like something from a bygone, far more rough-and-ready, era as the sick Ferrari growled around the track making a distinctly off-key noise, and with what looked like a drainpipe on a piece of a wire flailing from its side, battering and burning a large wound in the bodywork.

Fortunately for Ferrari, they had pulled out such a big lead by this time that Raikkonen could ease off and still be sure of second as long as the car keep rolling, and that advantage also enabled Massa to take things extremely cautiously when the rain paid a brief visit with 12 laps to go.

Part of Ferrari's comfort zone came from their pure superiority on speed, as yet again they proved to have the faster car around Magny-Cours by some margin. But while it was certain that Canada winners BMW Sauber had fallen back rather dramatically in France, judging McLaren's potential was rather harder.

It was another embattled weekend for Ron Dennis' squad, who received no fewer than three penalties: ten places down the grid for Hamilton thanks to his Montreal pit collision, a five place grid demotion for Kovalainen after he accidentally got in Webber's way in Q1, and a drivethrough for Hamilton in the race after he missed half the Nurburgring chicane while passing Sebastian Vettel on lap one.

Throw in Hamilton's uncompromising comments about the media's criticism of his Montreal mistake, and the team's strenuous efforts to play down any suggestion that they felt victimised by the Formula One authorities following the string of penalties, and it added up to an angst-filled weekend for McLaren.

It was pretty stressful for Ferrari too, but their problems all occurred when they already had a big lead to play with, and that meant that the Italian squad left France with the championship advantage, while McLaren head to their home race at a points and probably also performance disadvantage, and with a point to prove.

Practice

Practice one - Friday am

The weekend got off to a muted start, with no-one attempting a flying lap for the first 26 minutes, and the morning seeing few incidents and little close competition at the top of the times.

Lewis Hamilton briefly led the way after the main contenders completed their first outings, but in the second half of the session Felipe Massa took charge, eventually ending up 0.7 seconds clear of the McLaren. Massa stuck to short runs to rest a stiff neck - an injury he had bizarrely sustained when he had a "moment" (apparently a sneeze) while in an upward-travelling elevator...

Heikki Kovalainen had a dramatic near-miss on his last run when he skittered through the Estoril gravel and nearly stuck the wall, but still took third ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Robert Kubica, with Fernando Alonso sixth despite an engine failure in the final minutes and Jarno Trulli recovering after a spin at the Adelaide hairpin to take seventh.

Practice two - Friday pm

The frenetic afternoon session provided far more action than practice one had, with rising track temperatures catching out almost every driver at some point. Hamilton, Trulli and Massa all visited the Estoril gravel, with Massa also off the road at Imola - setting an example that Nelson Piquet and Adrian Sutil later followed.

Alonso had plenty of wild moments of his own, including an error at the 180 and a spectacularly sideways exit from the final chicane, but put a tidy lap together on soft tyres at the end of the session to beat Massa to the fastest time.

Raikkonen and Hamilton were third and fourth, ahead of a superb Sebastian Vettel, who was a front-runner all session in his Toro Rosso.

Championship leader Kubica was an unhappy sixth, disappointed with his BMW's handling and frustrated by the time lost to a misfire.

Practice three - Saturday am

Renault had given Piquet two days of testing prior to Magny-Cours in a bid to restore his confidence and help turn his difficult year around. With qualifying pace having been at the heart of his woes, it was encouraging for the Brazilian rookie to top final practice in France, leading for most of the hour and staying in front despite failing to improve his time on soft tyres.

Mark Webber did gain on softs and leapt to second ahead of the continually-impressive Vettel, who was rapid on both tyre compounds.

Raikkonen was the best of the 'actual' contenders in fifth, as an error at the Imola chicane on his best lap left Hamilton seventh.

Qualifying

Part one

Before the race weekend, Nick Heidfeld felt he might have made some progress with resolving his recent qualifying woes. But when Q1 began it looked like the BMW driver had moved in the opposite direction, as he languished in 18th after his first two attempts, and only made it up to a safe 12th place in the dying seconds.

Heidfeld's improvement pushed Williams' Kazuki Nakajima outside the cut-off point and down to 16th place. The Japanese rookie and Mark Webber had been involved in a traffic jam in the final corners when they came up behind Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren, which was finishing an out-lap.

The Finn was adamant he had done his best to get out of the way, but the incident would ultimately result in him receiving a five-place blocking penalty, ostensibly for impeding Webber, although the incident didn't trouble the Australian much as he easily made the Q2 cut.

"I tried to stay out of other drivers' way when I was on my warming-up lap, and the stewards decided to give me a five-place penalty," said Kovalainen. "I don't want to talk about it."

Also out were the two Hondas and the two Force Indias. Jenson Button and Giancarlo Fisichella out-qualified their respective teammates, but that was little consolation as both teams struggled to get near their rivals, with the Force Indias 0.7 seconds adrift of even the troubled Hondas.

"It is disappointing to be 17th and think that we got pretty much everything out of it," said Button. "Hopefully we will be more competitive in race trim - I think we will be a lot better."

His teammate Rubens Barrichello would ultimately drop right to the back, taking a gearbox change penalty prior to the race.

Part two

Heidfeld's troubles continued in Q2, but he could take some solace from the fact that his teammate Robert Kubica was faring little better. The winners in Canada were struggling to break into the top ten in France, and although Kubica squeezed through in 10th place, Heidfeld was 0.063 seconds slower and had to settle for 12th.

They were split by Nelson Piquet. Although missing out on Q3 yet again wasn't what the Brazilian had hoped for after topping pre-race testing and final practice, it was an improvement on his recent qualifying tribulations, and earned praise from Renault's engineering director Pat Symonds.

"He was just 0.05 seconds away from making Q3. It's a great effort," said Symonds.

Also slumping after a star practice performance was Sebastian Vettel, who joined his Toro Rosso teammate Sebastien Bourdais on row seven.

"I came very near to making Q3 and although I can't say I'm angry, when you get so close it is disappointing not to have done it," said Vettel.

Behind Bourdais, Williams' Nico Rosberg was a disgruntled 15th, which was soon to become the back row when his grid penalty for crashing in the Montreal pits was applied.

The German was mainly frustrated by his team's lack of pace, though.

"I knew it was going to be slightly hard for us here, but to be so far off the pace is quite surprising," Rosberg said.

"If everything had gone perfectly, I may have been in P14, but that's not good enough. We had to compromise our pace this afternoon because of the grid penalty, but that should only have cost us a tenth, not this much."

Part three

Felipe Massa had been fastest in both Q1 and Q2, but in the session that counted, it was his teammate Kimi Raikkonen who took command.

He beat Massa to provisional pole with his first Q3 run, and when the Brazilian failed to improve sufficiently on his second attempt, the team advised Raikkonen to pit rather than bother completing his (even quicker) final flying lap.

"That lap was actually at least two tenths faster but just at the last moment I pulled in when I was supposed to turn into the last chicane, because they told me to pit," Raikkonen said.

"We have had good speed all weekend and the car has been working well and this has been a great weekend so far but tomorrow is the one we need to finish. Hopefully we can win as we need some points."

Massa felt he only had himself to blame for missing out on pole.

"I was overdriving a bit too much in Q3 trying to get the best out of the car," he said. "I lost a little bit of time at a couple of corners just trying to push too hard."

Ferrari were able to take a casual approach because their habitual main rivals were all out of sorts. Kovalainen was running heavy fuel as McLaren correctly predicted he would eventually be penalised for the Q1 confusion, Kubica remained off the pace, and Hamilton's penalty for causing the Montreal pit crash neutralised his challenge, although in any event the Briton was only third fastest after consecutive errors at the Nurburgring chicane.

"I have to apologise to the team as I did not do a great job at all," said Hamilton.

His penalty would move Fernando Alonso up to third after another attacking qualifying performance from the Renault driver, who had his sights firmly set on a podium in the race.

"We were always dreaming of a podium in the past but we needed luck and something to happen to the others," he said. "This time, the McLaren is at the back and the BMW is not performing too well, so it is up to us to be on the podium."

Alonso would be joined on row two by his former Renault teammate Jarno Trulli, as Toyota showed very promising pace on a poignant weekend. Just a week after their original team boss Ove Andersson's death in a rally crash, Trulli and teammate Timo Glock secured what would become fourth and eighth on the grid following the McLaren penalties.

Kubica only managed seventh, behind Kovalainen on times, but with both McLarens heading backwards post-session, he would be elevated to fifth. Although it seemed like a rather rude comedown after the ecstasy of Montreal, Kubica was phlegmatic about his lowly position.

"After yesterday when we were struggling, I was expecting a difficult qualifying," he shrugged.

"We don't have enough pace. I don't know why, maybe the other teams have improved and maybe we didn't, and that's the result."

Once all the penalties were applied, Red Bull's Mark Webber and David Coulthard found themselves in a slightly surprising sixth and seventh.

"I have no clue how we ended up eighth (fastest), but we are there," said Webber, who - like his teammate - had been thoroughly underwhelmed by his car's performance in practice.

Qualifying results

Pos  Driver        Team                 Q1        Q2        Q3       Laps
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              1:15.133  1:15.161  1:16.449  16
 2.  Massa         Ferrari              1:15.024  1:15.041  1:16.490  17
 3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     1:15.634  1:15.293  1:16.693  15
 4.  Alonso        Renault              1:15.754  1:15.483  1:16.840  18
 5.  Trulli        Toyota               1:15.521  1:15.362  1:16.920  19
 6.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     1:15.965  1:15.639  1:16.944  18
 7.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           1:15.687  1:15.723  1:17.037  19
 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     1:16.020  1:15.488  1:17.233  18
 9.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     1:15.802  1:15.654  1:17.426  19
10.  Glock         Toyota               1:15.727  1:15.558  1:17.596  24
11.  Piquet        Renault              1:15.848  1:15.770            12
12.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           1:16.006  1:15.786            14
13.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:15.918  1:15.816            17
14.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:16.072  1:16.045            17
15.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      1:16.085  1:16.235            12
16.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      1:16.243                       9
17.  Button        Honda                1:16.306                       9
18.  Barrichello   Honda                1:16.330                       6
19.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari  1:16.971                      10
20.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari  1:17.053                       9

The Race

By the team the field turned in to the Grande Courbe for the first time, Ferrari already looked destined for a one-two.

Kimi Raikkonen led Felipe Massa, while any hopes Fernando Alonso had of at least some first stint glory disappeared when his slow getaway dropped him to fifth behind Jarno Trulli's Toyota and Robert Kubica's BMW.

Having been instructed by his team that gaining ground on the first lap was his best chance of making up for BMW's lack of Magny-Cours pace, Kubica immediately attacked Trulli on the outside at the Adelaide hairpin, but succeeded only in opening a gap for Alonso to sneak through on the exit, putting the BMW back down to fifth.

McLaren's hopes of salvaging a result were also heavily dependent on gaining places on lap one. Sure enough, Lewis Hamilton went on an immediate charge, but his move on Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso would prove fatal for his chances of scoring points.

He drew alongside the Toro Rosso on the outside approaching the Nurburgring chicane, and turned in ahead, but was going too fast to make the corner and to avoid the cars immediately in front, so cut across the asphalt run-off and missed the first part of the chicane. Before long it was announced that the stewards were investigating the move...

"I believe I was ahead on the outside and I couldn't turn in on the guy otherwise we would have crashed so I took the outside line, lost the back on the marbles and went over the kerb," said Hamilton. "I continued because I don't believe I overtook him by going over the kerb, I actually took him before that."

Hamilton completed the opening lap in 10th, immediately behind teammate Heikki Kovalainen and at the tail of the queue behind sixth-placed Timo Glock's Toyota, which had Webber's slow-starting Red Bull, Nelson Piquet's fast-starting Renault, and the two McLarens on its tail, along with David Coulthard, whose getaway was also less than rapid.

Kovalainen swiftly allowed the lighter Hamilton to pass him, but like his teammate, the Briton could find no way around Piquet. And on lap 12 his life got even harder when race control confirmed that he would be penalised for the pass on Vettel.

With Magny-Cours handily having one of the shortest pitlanes in Formula One, Hamilton lost only 14 seconds and three positions. But what proved more costly was that his first scheduled stop followed just six laps later, and having already been put back into even slower traffic, this second pit visit dropped him right to the tail of the field and right out of contention for points.

His former teammate Alonso was also having an increasingly unhappy afternoon. Running an aggressive strategy, he became the first man to stop for fuel when he pitted on lap 15, but with the field not yet fully spread out, he rejoined right back in 12th.

The time lost on his fuel-heavy out-laps meant that Alonso both lost touch with Trulli in the battle for third, and fell behind Kubica and Webber once the first stops were complete - although the Red Bull driver handed fifth back to Alonso with an error over the kerbs at the final chicane.

Webber then came under pressure from Kovalainen, who had managed to jump Piquet when the Renault failed to pick up speed in the pit exit as they rejoined together after their first stops on lap 25. "My hand just slipped on the neutral button," Piquet confessed.

Once clear of the Renault, Kovalainen quickly closed in on Webber, passing the Red Bull with a neat move at the Adelaide hairpin on lap 41 - forcing his rival to defend the inside then accelerating past on the exit as Webber struggled for traction.

For the first half of the race, the focus was entirely on this close race for the final podium spot and the minor points, for the Ferrari duo were in absolute control and Raikkonen had a comfortable advantage over Massa - establishing a six-second lead by the time their first stops were done, despite Massa running two laps longer.

But just after half-distance, Massa suddenly began carving huge chunks out of his teammate's lead, before breezing past on lap 38 as Raikkonen's pace tailed off due to a loose section of the exhaust system, which was flapping around the Ferrari's bodywork.

"We just lost massive power. That was the biggest problem," Raikkonen said. "Sometimes you just lost all the power and then it came back. It was slow in a straight line and especially out of low speed corners it was difficult."

Despite this drama, Raikkonen managed to keep his pace within one second per lap of Massa, although the team were very anxious about the ailing car's chances of lasting another 32 laps.

"In that condition you never know. It may stop any lap," team boss Stefano Domenicali admitted. "We were trying to do what we could in order to protect the engine under those conditions and after all the things that were possible to do, just wait until the chequered flag."

Fortunately for Ferrari, they didn't have to worry too much about Raikkonen being caught by the pack. Third-placed Trulli was half a minute adrift and successfully holding back Kubica, as Alonso gained on them both.

But the Toyota's apparently slow pace was deceptive, for Trulli was running significantly heavier than the cars around him. While Alonso stopped on lap 42 and Kubica on lap 46, Trulli ran right through to lap 50, and consequently emerged comfortably clear of both, while Alonso found himself back behind Webber again as the Red Bull had stayed out until lap 49.

Kovalainen didn't pit until lap 52, which allowed him to gain another two positions and rejoin four seconds behind Trulli in fourth place. He quickly reduced that gap, and got even closer when a brief rain shower made life treacherous for the entire field.

"It is obviously difficult to judge how bad the rain is when you are in front," said Trulli, who suddenly had Kovalainen and Kubica all over the back of him.

"It is easier to be behind someone else. I was taking a bit of care as normally our car struggles a bit on the colder conditions but I managed to get back into the right condition and after the rain stopped I did my job."

He couldn't ever quite shake the McLaren off, though, and on the penultimate lap Kovalainen got a run on the Toyota on the exit of the 180 corner and almost banged wheels with Trulli at the fast Imola chicane before taking to the run-off and settling for fourth.

"It was wheel-to-wheel like in go-karts," said Trulli, who thoroughly enjoyed the dice. "It is many years since I did such a nice fight. I would love to fight every race like that."

"I tried everything I could to overtake him, but I just couldn't quite make it," said Kovalainen.

With that final attempt exhausting Kovalainen's challenge, Trulli was free to clinch Toyota's first podium since Melbourne 2006, and his first visit to the rostrum since Spain 2005.

Close behind Kovalainen, Kubica was relatively satisfied with fifth given BMW's lack of pace, while Webber claimed sixth despite Alonso making several strenuous efforts to pass the Red Bull during the rain shower.

In the end, though, Alonso found himself right back in eighth, having gone wide in traffic on the penultimate lap - allowing his teammate Piquet to claim seventh and his first F1 points.

As Alonso had his heart set on the podium, he shrugged off the loss of seventh ("one or two points won't change my life"), but for Piquet this breakthrough result was extremely significant, and earned some rare praise from team boss Flavio Briatore.

"Nelson had a remarkable race," said the recently-married Italian, "very consistent and aggressive."

Hamilton managed to recover as far as 10th, behind Coulthard, having made particularly good progress as others backed off when the shower hit. Glock was among those passed by the McLaren in the closing stages, the Toyota losing ground with understeer as the race progressed.

He came under pressure from Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso near the end, the young German having briefly run as high as fourth thanks to a very long first stint, although he lacked the pace after his stop to remain a points contender.

Nick Heidfeld was the last of the unlapped cars in 13th following an extremely muted race for BMW, having never shown the pace to get out of the midfield traffic.

Given Honda's poor weekend, Rubens Barrichello was delighted to salvage 14th, ahead of the two Williams. Kazuki Nakajima beat Nico Rosberg to 16th as the latter's one-stop strategy (which saw him not pit until lap 42) failed to pay off, Rosberg spending much of the afternoon in last place.

Sebastien Bourdais' Toro Rosso and the two Force Indias brought up the rear, Bourdais making a poor start then losing a chunk of his rear wing when Jenson Button hit him at the first corner. The Honda later retired due to the damage sustained when its weakened front wing folded itself under the car.

Button was the only driver not to see the chequered flag - which was remarkable given that the man who finished second had spent half the race with significant parts of his Ferrari flailing around behind him.

Raikkonen admitted that he had expected to be trudging back to the pits on foot having retired rather than climbing onto the podium in second position.

"I saw in the mirror that the exhaust pipe was hanging on one of the cables at the back of the car," he said.

"Usually when that happens it doesn't take too long before something else goes wrong but luckily the car was strong enough, the engine was strong enough. Even with a big problem like that we could still do pretty good lap times and finish second."

Raikkonen eventually cruised home 17 seconds behind his victorious teammate Massa, who consequently claimed the world championship lead for the first time in his career. It also marked the first time that a Brazilian had headed the table since Ayrton Senna occupied that position in early 1993, but Massa's focus was on a more lasting achievement.

"It's nice but my dream is not just to lead the championship, my dream is to win the championship and I'm going to do the best I can to try to achieve that," he said.

Race results

70 laps; 308.586km;
Weather: Cloudy, then light rain.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  1h31:50.245
 2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  +    17.984
 3.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  +    28.250
 4.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    28.929
 5.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +    30.512
 6.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    40.304
 7.  Piquet        Renault               (B)  +    41.033
 8.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +    43.372
 9.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    51.021
10.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    54.538
11.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +    57.700
12.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +    58.065
13.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +  1:02.079
14.  Barrichello   Honda                 (B)  +     1 lap
15.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +     1 lap
16.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +     1 lap
17.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +     1 lap
18.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari   (B)  +     1 lap
19.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari   (B)  +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:16.630

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Button        Honda                 (B)    17


World Championship standings, round 8:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Massa         48        1.  Ferrari                91
 2.  Kubica        46        2.  BMW Sauber             74
 3.  Raikkonen     43        3.  McLaren-Mercedes       58
 4.  Hamilton      38        4.  Red Bull-Renault       24
 5.  Heidfeld      28        5.  Toyota                 23
 6.  Kovalainen    20        6.  Williams-Toyota        15
 7.  Trulli        18        7.  Renault                12
 8.  Webber        18        8.  Honda                   8
 9.  Alonso        10        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      7
10.  Rosberg        8
11.  Nakajima       7
12.  Coulthard      6
13.  Barrichello    5
14.  Glock          5
15.  Vettel         5
16.  Button         3
17.  Piquet         2
18.  Bourdais       2

Team-by-Team

Massa hints that Ferrari will dominate this weekend when he tops opening practice by 0.7 seconds despite neck pains. He then takes second on the grid behind pole-winning teammate Raikkonen.

They look set to hold the same positions in the race as they quickly establish themselves in a comfortable one-two, but when part of Raikkonen's exhaust works loose, Massa is able to claim the win and the points lead. Remarkably, his teammate nurses his battered car home for second.

After the delight of Canada, BMW come back down to earth in France, as their car falls off the front-running pace. Kubica has a misfire on Friday but is more concerned about the handling, and only just makes it through to Q3, where he is only seventh fastest, although the McLaren penalties hand him two places.

He has a spirited battle with Trulli and Alonso early in the race, but later loses out to Kovalainen at the final stops so has to settle for fifth.

Heidfeld only manages 12th in qualifying and makes no progress in the race, having a quiet midfield run to 13th.

Alonso blows an engine on Friday morning but is fastest in second practice. Piquet then repeats the feat on Saturday morning. The Spaniard then qualifies third (after Hamilton's penalty) and declares his intention to claim a podium in the race, although Piquet is frustrated to end up 11th given his improved pace.

A poor start costs Alonso two places off the line, and although he quickly re-passes Kubica for fourth, he cannot overtake Trulli in the first stint. His short stints and comparatively early stops then cost him positions at each pit sequence, and he looks set for seventh until running wide while dicing with Webber in traffic with two laps to go and losing a place.

It's Piquet who benefits from his team leader's mistake, after a strong race performance that sees him fending off the McLarens in the early laps. A pit exit error that lets Kovalainen past is his only slip. He pounces when Alonso goes off and takes his first two F1 points.

Williams expect a tough time in France with lead driver Nico Rosberg facing a ten-place grid penalty for his part in the Montreal pit chaos, but the extent of their tribulations comes as a surprise. Both cars lack pace, with Nakajima 16th and eliminated in Q1, and Rosberg only reaching 15th before taking his penalty.

A massive 42-lap one-stop fuel load doesn't pay off for Rosberg on race day, as he runs last for much of the distance and finishes a few seconds behind the equally disappointed Nakajima in 16th.

After struggling for speed in practice, Webber and Coulthard are pleasantly surprised to find themselves in sixth and seventh on the grid, albeit after gaining two places apiece from the McLaren penalties.

Webber drops behind Glock at the start but moves up to fifth during the first stops, although he subsequently loses one place to Alonso with a error at the final chicane and is later overtaken by the charging Kovalainen. He gets back ahead of the Renault during the final pit sequence, and ends up sixth.

Coulthard also loses places off the line and has a harder time recovering them, leaving him ninth at the flag.

The death of former team boss Ove Andersson in the run up to the race leaves Toyota in mourning, but Trulli lifts their spirits and pays suitable tribute to Andersson by taking an outstanding third place - their first podium in two and a half years.

The Italian has a couple of spins in practice and qualifying but still finds himself fourth on the grid after Hamilton's demotion. He beats Alonso off the line and clings on to third all afternoon, despite huge pressure at various stages from the Renault, Kubica and Kovalainen.

Glock starts eighth and holds sixth for a while, but understeer causes him to lose pace and to drop places during every pit sequence, leaving him a lowly 11th.

Vettel is one of the stars of practice, with a series of top five times, so he's not too excited to be only 13th in qualifying. A long first stint in the race sees him running as high as fourth, although the tactic of then switching to a short middle stint works less well, so he ends up 12th - ahead of Heidfeld and right on the tail of Glock.

Bourdais starts an F1 career-best 14th, despite not yet being comfortable with his set-up on the new car. A poor start and a first corner assault from Button mar his race, and he finishes a distant 17th.

Slow practice times hint at a difficult weekend, and sure enough Button and Barrichello are a dismal 17th and 18th in qualifying. While Button gains a place from Rosberg's penalty, Barrichello joins the German at the back when he takes a gearbox change.

Button's race is brief: he hits Bourdais at the first corner and consequently retires 15 laps later, thanks to the damage done when his battered front wing finally wraps itself around the Honda's underside.

But Barrichello is a very upbeat 14th at the finish, having made good progress through the backmarkers thanks to a long, 34-lap, first stint and a late final stop.

Force India totally lose touch with the rest of the field in France: Fisichella and Sutil are slowest in qualifying and 0.6 seconds behind even the struggling Hondas.

They gamble on split strategies, running short with Sutil and long with Fisichella, but to no avail. The Italian's plan works better and he takes 18th - 20 seconds ahead of his teammate but half a minute behind the rest of the midfielders.

Another controversial and frustrating weekend rescued only by Kovalainen's stirring run to fourth.

Hamilton is frustrated with third place in qualifying, translating to 13th on the grid when his Montreal penalty takes effect, while Kovalainen inadvertently blocks Webber in Q1 and runs heavy in Q3 because McLaren already anticipate a penalty. He is sixth fastest, gains one place from Hamilton's penalty, then loses five thanks to his own punishment.

In the race Hamilton is in more trouble with the officials as he cuts the Nurburgring chicane while dicing with Vettel on lap one. He reaches ninth before taking a drivethrough penalty that ultimately leaves him at the tail of the field. Despite some impressive passing moves, 10th is the limit of his comeback.

Kovalainen makes quieter progress on a heavy fuel load, passing Piquet when the Brazilian makes an error in the pit exit, overtaking Webber in a straight fight, and then gaining more places in the final stops to appear in fourth place, where he finishes after some spirited late attempts to pass third-placed Trulli.

Lap-by-Lap

Lap 1: With rain a constant possibility, Kimi Raikkonen leads away from pole position. Felipe Massa settles into second but Fernando Alonso is passed by both Jarno Trulli and Robert Kubica.

The start of the French Grand Prix © LAT

The Spaniard repasses Kubica at the hairpin exit.

Timo Glock makes a good start to take sixth from Mark Webber, Nelson Piquet, Heikki Kovalainen, Lewis Hamilton, David Coulthard, Sebastian Vettel, Nick Heidfeld, Kazuki Nakajima, Sebastien Bourdais, Giancarlo Fisichella, Adrian Sutil, Rubens Barrichello (who incurred a late, five-position grid penalty following an unscheduled gearbox change), Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button, who appears to have front wing damage.

Lap 2: Raikkonen leads by 1.3 seconds. Barrichello passes Sutil.

Lap 4: The damaged nose on Button's car stops him from taking the final turn and he runs wide.

Lap 5: Hamilton passes Kovalainen. Button pits.

Lap 7: Raikkonen leads by 2.8 seconds.

Lap 8: Hamilton locks up at the hairpin behind Piquet.

Lap 10: Raikkonen leads by 3.2 seconds. Trulli is a further 8.5 seconds adrift.

Lap 13: Hamilton is given a drive-through penalty for missing the apex of Turn Seven on lap one and gaining an advantage. He comes in straight away and drops to 13th.

Lap 15: Alonso makes the race's first scheduled stop. He drops to 12th.

Lap 16: Raikkonen locks up and drops 0.7 seconds to Massa but he still leads by 4.0 seconds.

Lap 17: The lapped Button pits to retire.

Lewis Hamilton overtakes Nico Rosberg in the hairpin © XPB

Lap 19: Hamilton makes a scheduled stop and drops to 19th, temporarily one lap down. Bourdais' Toro Rosso loses some rear bodywork.

Lap 20: Trulli, Kubica and Sutil pit.

Lap 21: Raikkonen and Glock pit. Massa leads. Raikkonen resumes in second.

Lap 22: Massa and Webber pit.

Lap 24: Raikkonen leads Massa by 4.3 seconds. Webber almost spins at the final corner.

Lap 25: Piquet and Kovalainen pit. The Finn passes the Brazilian as they exit the pits.

Lap 26: Coulthard and Bourdais pit.

Lap 28: Hamilton passes Rosberg for 16th.

Lap 29: Vettel and Heidfeld pit from fourth and sixth.

Lap 30: Raikkonen leads by 6.6 seconds from Massa. Trulli is half a minute behind the leader in third.

Lap 32: Fisichella pits.

Lap 33: Massa takes several tenths from Raikkonen...

Lap 34: ...and does it again. The gap is 3.2 seconds.

Lap 36: Massa closes to within 2.2 seconds. Trulli, Kubica, Alonso and Webber run third to sixth.

Lap 37: Massa closes in again: 1.7 seconds.

Exhaust damage on the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen © LAT

Lap 39: Massa passes Raikkonen.

Lap 40: Massa leads by 3.8 seconds. Rosberg pits.

Lap 42: Kovalainen passes Webber for sixth. Alonso makes his second stop.

Lap 43: Sutil pits.

Lap 46: Massa leads by 10.0 seconds. Kubica pits, as does Bourdais.

Lap 47: Hamilton passes Alonso for 12th.

Lap 48: Vettel and Heidfeld pit.

Lap 49: Webber and Glock pit.

Lap 50: Trulli and Piquet pit.

Lap 52: Raikkonen, Kovalainen, Coulthard and Hamilton pit.

Lap 54: Massa pits but retains the lead. Hamilton passes Vettel. The lapped Fisichella pits.

Lap 55: Massa leads Raikkonen by 13.4 seconds. Trulli is third, with Kovalainen closing.

Lap 56: Barrichello pits.

Lap 57: Hamilton passes Glock for 10th.

Lap 58: Nakajima pits. Kovalainen is right behind Trulli.

Jarno Trulli celebrates with the Toyota team © LAT

Lap 62: Something comes off Raikkonen's car, without obvious consequences.

Lap 68: Piquet passes Alonso.

Lap 69: Kovalainen tries to pass Trulli but runs wide in the wake of some robust defence.

Lap 70: Massa wins by 17.9 seconds from Raikkonen.

Trulli is third from Kovalainen, Kubica, Webber, Piquet, Alonso, Coulthard, Hamilton, Glock, Vettel, Heidfeld and the lapped Barrichello, Nakajima, Rosberg, Bourdais, Fisichella and Sutil.