On a personal front the French Grand Prix being conducted for the last time in Magny-Cours was a disappointment for me as a McLaren fan. Alonso started from 10th after facing gearbox problems during qualifying. His gearbox got welded to the engine which had to be cut off and replaced with a new gearbox. A change of engine would have been an easier option but he would have had to start from the end of the grid in such a case.
The two Ferrari's had a perfect start with Massa taking off from 1st and Kimi grabbing the 2nd position in the first corner after starting 3rd from the grid beating Lewis who started 2nd. Alonso managed a flying start getting into 7th position after starting from 10th. Robert Kubica followed Lewis all through the race. The race was thrilling in two sections particularly. The first was Alonso's battle with Nick Heidfeld before his first pit stop, the Spainard clearly had the faster car but Nick's clever driving saw Alonso at his wit's end attempting all sorts of heroic stuff. He would go on to overtake Nick after his second pit stop but lost a lot of time meanwhile.
This was a race where strategy took over when all other tricks drivers had in their bags failed. Sample this, Massa leads most of the race till he stops for his final stop and get's out behind Kimi who is yet to pit for tyres and fuel. Kimi pits and get's ahead of Massa and goes on to win the race, what is that? Absolutely determined driving and good strategy. McLaren's strategy was found lacking in many areas. Getting Lewis to pit the third time for softer tyres and fuel added about 20 secs to his lap time. At one point a charging Lewis had closed the gap between him and Massa to about 8 secs with 20 laps to go.
Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts
1 6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 70 1:30:54.200 3 10
2 5 Felipe Massa Ferrari 70 +2.4 secs 1 8
3 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 70 +32.1 secs 2 6
4 10 Robert Kubica BMW 70 +41.7 secs 4 5
5 9 Nick Heidfeld BMW 70 +48.8 secs 7 4
6 3 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 70 +52.2 secs 5 3
7 1 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes 70 +56.5 secs 10 2
8 7 Jenson Button Honda 70 +58.8 secs 12 1
9 16 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 70 +68.5 secs 9
10 11 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 69 +1 Lap 11
11 8 Rubens Barrichello Honda 69 +1 Lap 13
12 15 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 69 +1 Lap 14
13 14 David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 69 +1 Lap 16
14 17 Alexander Wurz Williams-Toyota 69 +1 Lap 18
15 4 Heikki Kovalainen Renault 69 +1 Lap 6
16 22 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 68 +2 Laps 22
17 20 Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari 68 +2 Laps 21
Ret 19 Scott Speed STR-Ferrari 55 Technical 15
Ret 21 Christijan Albers Spyker-Ferrari 28 Accident 20
Ret 23 Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 1 Accident 19
Ret 12 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1 Accident 8
Ret 18 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Ferrari 0 Accident 17
Over to Silverstone next weekend, the circuit where Mika won the GP in 2001 with a 3 pit stop strategy while all/most other cars were on 2 stops.
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