French GP

With the 2008 season rapidly approaching the halfway mark, Felipe Massa left France with the lead of the drivers’ championship. And on recent form, who’s to say he can’t go all the way? He may have benefitted from team mate Kimi Raikkonen’s technical woes, but even with a sick car, Ferrari’s one-two was emphatic. And as McLaren and BMW Sauber slipped down the order, it was Toyota who were partying hardest in the Magny-Cours paddock on Sunday evening. We take a team-by-team look at how the French Grand Prix played out...

Ferrari

Felipe Massa, 1m 16.729s, P1

Kimi Raikkonen, 1m 16.630s, P2

Having taken pole, Raikkonen seemed an easy winner as he maintained a small but crucial margin over Massa. Then came his exhaust problem around the 33rd lap, which eventually cost him the lead and dropped him to a philosophical second place. On the one hand he was unlucky, on the other he was fortunate to make it to the finish as the engine was threatening to shut down in the final laps. Massa, who had qualified superbly with a heavier fuel load, was perfectly poised to take over as the wheel of fortune spun his way. As is so often the case here, Ferrari were in a class of their own, and the constructors’ points table more than reflects that.

Toyota

Jarno Trulli, 1m 17.567s, P3

Timo Glock, 1m 17.836s, P11

Third place was a great fillip for Toyota, as Trulli scored the marque’s first podium since Australia 2006 after a hard, pushy race which saw him hanging pretty tough on the penultimate lap as he resisted Kovalainen’s challenge. He likened the fight to racing karts. His six points moved Toyota further ahead of Williams. Glock seemed on for a good race when he ran sixth initially, but graining on his second set of Bridgestones created horrible understeer that dropped him down the order.

McLaren

Heikki Kovalainen, 1m 17.134s, P4

Lewis Hamilton, 1m 17.453s, P10

Yet again Hamilton went home without any points, this time almost certainly because the stewards judged his passing move on Vettel on the opening lap as worthy of a drive-through penalty. Hamilton and McLaren disagreed, but once he had served the penalty all chance of points had gone and he had to be content with a 10th place finish. The fastest lap times reveal that, this day, Ferrari had the upper hand in any case. Kovalainen was happy with a strategy that enabled him to move up from his penalised 10th place on the grid to fourth by the end of the race. Encouragingly, he said that his MP4-23 felt ‘fantastic’ throughout the race.

BMW Sauber

Robert Kubica, 1m 17.172s, P5

Nick Heidfeld, 1m 17.716s, P13

This was a disappointing race for BMW Sauber after the high in Canada. Kubica passed Alonso brilliantly on the outside of Turn One, but was repassed in the hairpin when he got bottled up behind Trulli who was carrying more fuel. His F1.08 lacked poise, but he took heart that his fifth place was only two seconds shy of the podium. Heidfeld had a terrible race, bemoaning his car’s balance on his way to 13th place.