Brazilian Felipe Massa regained the leadership of the Formula One drivers world championship yesterday when he drove to a commanding victory for Ferrari in the French Grand Prix.
Massa, 27, took full advantage of exhaust problems that hindered his teammate, defending champion Finn Kimi Raikkonen, to take the lead from him after 39 of the 70 laps and then drive to a comfortable triumph.
Raikkonen, who had started from Ferrari’s 200th pole position, followed him home in his wounded Ferrari 17.984 seconds later, to finish ahead of third-placed Italian Jarno Trulli of Toyota who was 28.250 seconds off the pace.
It was Massa’s third win this season and the eighth of his career and hoisted him to 48 points in the drivers’ table, two points ahead of Poland’s Robert Kubica, who finished fifth.
Two-time world champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso was a disappointing seventh for Renault, after starting third on the grid, and his teammate Brazilian Nelson Piquet was eighth. Briton Lewis Hamilton, who started 13th following a penalty for his pit lane crash in Canada, endured another madcap and controversial contest in which he was penalized again before finishing 10th. After failing to see a red light in Montreal, this time he drove too aggressively and missed out a chicane as he made a first-lap passing move — for which he was handed a drive-through penalty.
The race, which was expected to be the last held at Magny-Cours, was hardly a thriller, but produced enough action to justify F1 commercial ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone’s decision announced in the morning that it was expected to be retained on the calendar next year.
On an overcast day, of little sunshine and with an air and track temperature of 25ºC, the red cars provided the color.
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