Massa Leads Ferrari 1-2 in France
By Brian Potter
June 23, 2008 6:00 PM
Filed Under: European, F1, Ferrari
Excellent starts for both Ferrari's as they pulled away from the pack within the first few turns. The Ferrari's would pace closely to each other with Kimi Räikkönen in the lead until lap 38 when Massa would pass due to a piece of Kimi's exhaust breaking through the body work. It cost Kimi the win, but he managed to keep a large enough lead from Jarno Trulli in third to barely finish in second place.
As the first podium for Toyota since 2005, Jarno Trulli took third place despite a last lap challenge by Finland's Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren. The Finn tried to power past Trulli on the straight but it wasn't enough as they touched wheels braking into the next turn causing Kovalinen to overshoot the chicane and concede his challenge.
Coming in fifth place, Robert Kubica clings onto second place for the drivers championship, still comfortably ahead of the tight points fight between Mark Webber’s Red Bull and the Renault drivers.
With three laps remaining, Renault's Fernando Alonso went wide when laping Giancarlo Fisichella at the hairpin and created a hole on the inside. Nelson Piquet took advantage and passed both Alonso and Fisichella upon exit and moved on to bring the challenge to Webber in the Red Bull all the way to the checkered flag.
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton went to France with a 10-place penalty, after the almost comical crash into the back of Kimi Räikkönen's Ferrari back in Montreal. The young Brit made matters worse on lap 13 by inadvertently cutting across the chicane which resulted in a pass on Sebastian Vettel. After working his way up to ninth place, the stewards gave Hamilton a drive-through penalty for his chicane crossing advantage ultimately finishing 10th behind David Coulthard’s Red Bull.
Toyota's Timo Glock maintained 11th place despite challenges by 12th place Toro Rosso's Vettel.
Despite a second place in Montreal, Nick Heidfeld had a disappointing 13th place for BMW Sauber.
A late gearbox change put Honda's Rubens Barrichello starting from the rear of the grid and resulted in him being the first driver lapped ultimately taking 14th place.
Williams drivers Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg dueled it out amongst themselves for 15th and 16th place, respectively.
Sebastien Bourdais was 17th for Toro Rosso ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil in their Force Indias.
Jenson Button was the only retirement after damage sustained to his Honda after contact with Bourdais on the first lap.
As the first Brazilian since Ayrton Senna at Monaco in 1993 to lead the world championship, Felipe Massa leads the championship with 48 points followed by Kubica with 46 and Räikkönen’s 43. After his second race without scoring points, Hamilton trails with 38.
Ferrari extend their lead in the constructors’ championship to 91 points, a significant 17 points over BMW Sauber's 74 and a massive 33 points over McLaren's 58.
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