Ferrari Team: Back on track

Sunday’s French Grand Prix. Finally, Ferrari 1-2. Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa and Ferrari won over McLaren in Magny-Cours, finishing more than half a minute ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren.

The red ferraris were able to opt a two-stop strategy. But the turning point really was when the Ferraris out-dragged Hamilton to the first corner when he mistakenly lagged off the dirty side of the grid at the start.

 

Massa led until his second stop. But due to Massa’s heavier fuel load, Raikkonen was able to run crucially longer and he emerged from his own stop three laps later with a lead he preserved to the end. It was his second victory of the season.

One thing’s for sure, the race for the championship between Ferrari and McLaren is still far from over. And after the red cars’ speed in testing last week at Silverstone, Hamilton’s prospects of becoming the first rookie to win the national Grand Prix is still far fetched.

 

BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld grabbed another nine points, finishing fourth and fifth places respectively. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, who started tenth after his qualifying woes, was out of luck, finishing seventh (after a long second stop) behind Giancarlo Fisichella’s hard-driven Renault. His two points leave him now 14 adrift of Hamilton, who moved up to 64. Massa’s second place leaves him third in the world championship on 47, but Raikkonen jumps closer with 42. In the constructors’ category, McLaren have 114 points while Ferrari 89.

 

Jenson Button and Honda collected the final point. Button turned in a solid performance that confirmed that the RA107 has improved. It was the first point of the season for both.

 

Nico Rosberg finishes on the 9th place for Williams, ahead of Ralf Schumacher in the Toyota, Honda’s Rubens Barrichello, the Red Bulls of Mark Webber and David Coulthard, Alex Wurz in the Williams, Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen, Takuma Sato in the Super Aguri and Adrian Sutil, who started from the pit lane after problems with his Spyker on the grid.

 

 

Vitantonio Liuzzi and Anthony Davidson had problems in the second corner when the English Super Aguri driver savaged the Italian’s Toro Rosso, while further round the lap Toyota’s Jarno Trulli ruined his and Kovalainen’s races by hitting the back of the Renault. Scott Speed’s Toro Rosso failed on him, a suspected problem with the team’s new seamless-shift transmission, and Christijan Albers retired his Spyker after dramatically taking the refuelling rig with him when he left the pits after his second stop. The mechanic he dragged over in the process mercifully escaped serious injury.