Ferrari pair Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa scored a resounding one-two in Sunday's French Grand Prix at Magny Cours, putting them firmly back in the World Championship battle. The pair finished nearly half a minute ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who opted for a three stop strategy whereas the Ferrari pair stopped twice.

Raikkonen's result partially depended on an excellent start, when he leaped into second place, overtaking Hamilton off the line. This, he explained, was thanks to recent developments to the start system, but it saw him trail pole-winning team mate Massa by 1.2s at the end of the first lap. Behind Hamilton came BMW's Robert Kubica, then Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella. BMW's Nick Heidfeld picked up a place at the start to end the first lap sixth, ahead of Nico Rosberg who picked up two places, as did Fernando Alonso in eighth place.

Massa explained later that he had to open up a four second gap in the first stint and this he did. In fact he had a 5.1s advantage over team mate Raikkonen by lap 19 when he made his first pit stop. By then Hamilton and Alonso had already made their first stops, on lap 16, the World Champion having been bottled up behind Heidfeld for many laps. Kubica and Fisichella also stopped on lap 19, while Rosberg came on lap 20. However, Raikkonen didn't pit until lap 22 when Heidfeld also came in. After the first round of stops, however, Massa's lead had shrunk to two seconds, but the pair were nearly eight seconds ahead of Hamilton, while Kubica was still fourth. Jenson Button, who had not made a pit stop, was fifth, ahead of Heidfeld and Alonso who were again locked in battle.

Rather than build up a gap to his team mate during the second stint, however, Massa found himself struggling to overtake a midfield battle comprising Rubens Barrichello, Mark Webber, David Coulthard and Alexander Wurz. Indeed, rather than building a gap, he actually lost out badly so that his lead was only 1.2s over team mate Raikkonen halfway through the 70 lap race. By the time he made his second stop on lap 43, his lead over his team mate had grown to 3.3s - but it wasn't enough. Again, Raikkonen came in a couple of laps later and when he emerged, he was in front by 1.8s. The margin grew to 2.4s over the final 25 laps but Massa was never in a position to challenge his team mate and the pair finished that way after 70 laps.

However, what was impressive was the margin to McLaren which was almost certainly increased by Hamilton's three stop strategy. He was already 4.1s behind the Ferraris when he made his third stop on lap 51 which dropped him to 23s behind the Ferraris. However, he finished third to maintain his 100 per cent attendance on the podium in his debut season. Kubica scored a strong fourth place ahead of team mate Heidfeld, the latter overhauling Giancarlo Fisichella who finished sixth. He had been overtaken earlier in the race by Alonso who finished behind him in seventh place, while Button's one-stop strategy resulted in eighth place.

At the halfway stage of the World Championship, Hamilton leads the championship by 14 points from Alonso, who is now just three ahead of Massa, who is five ahead of team mate Raikkonen. McLaren lead the Constructors' series by 25 points, but their margin was reduced by ten points in France. BMW Sauber are a distance third. It was the fourth win of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, the second courtesy of Kimi Raikkonen.
 

For Kimi, this was win number eleven from 113 Grand Prix participations in his career. For Ferrari it was victory number 196 from 749 races and the sixteenth in the French Grand Prix.

Jean Todt: "What a great one-two! I could not have a nicer present to celebrate the fourteenth anniversary of my arrival at the helm of the Scuderia. Today, everything went perfectly, which is what is needed to get a result like this. Both drivers got great starts, then they drove exceptionally well and fought it out between themselves for the win. Only traffic and strategy finally decided which one got the upper hand. In any case, what matters is that two red Ferrari cars finished ahead of the rest. The team did an impeccable job and the F2007s were up to the job in hand. We fought a very strong opponent and this one-two is crucial for the rest of both championships. There are still nine races to go and everything is still possible. We should try and repeat this result already next week in Silverstone, at the home of our main rivals."

Kimi Raikkonen: "Finally! Everything went the right way in my race. It was vital that I managed to get past Hamilton at the start and then I always tried to stay with Felipe. I knew I had a few laps in hand but, at my first pit stop, I had a bit of traffic and I was unable to get in the lead. Then at the second stop, the situation was turned around and I came out in front. Right from the start of the weekend we have been strong and this win is the reward for all the hard work carried out over the past few weeks. Now we must continue to improve the car because there is still room to do so, starting with the next race which we should tackle with the same approach that we used here in Magny-Cours."

Felipe Massa: "First of all I want to say I am happy for the team, as it needed this sort of result after a difficult spell. Of course, I would have wanted to win but I was delayed by traffic in the decisive phase of the race, when I knew I had to build up a bit of a lead over Kimi to stay ahead of him during the pit stops. The way the cars are today, you start to get some turbulence from the cars that are a certain distance ahead of you and so it is difficult to overtake even the slower cars if they don't really move over for you. My car was almost perfect and when I had a clear track ahead of me I was quickest on track. In any case, we have made up ground in both championships and we must continue down this path, starting already in Silverstone."

Luca Baldisserri: "A really great victory! After a strong showing in qualifying, today we had further confirmation that we are competitive in race trim, with the F2007 running completely trouble free. Both drivers fought it out on equal terms, only the traffic making the difference. We have worked so hard these past few weeks, both in the factory and on track. This one-two shows how much Formula 1 is a sport where every detail is important if one is to be the best. We did not die in Indianapolis, so it is not a miracle that we are back today. We worked on all areas and we managed to put together all the pieces of the jigsaw to produce a perfect weekend."

Race Details: Kimi Raikkonen: 1st 1:30.54.200 70 laps chassis 262; Felipe Massa: 2nd +2.414 70 laps chassis 260; Weather: air temperature 22 °C, track temperature 32/34 °C, overcast.