Copyright AP Photos/David Vincent

With all credits to Räikkönen, he led the race from start and built up a steady lead ahead of his teammate. However, halfway in the race, he began to slow down significantly and eventually was overtaken by his teammate. It turned out his exhaust pipe was broken and was causing some damage to his engine cover. He had done everything right, but as the previous race showed, anything can happen in a race and there are so many externalities that come into play. There was no doubt the Finn was a disappointed man from his expression on the podium.

Jarno Trulli had a good start off the line to take the third position from Fernando Alonso. Towards the end of the race, he held up to a valiant fight from McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen who had started from 10th on the grid. Both eventually finished 3rd and 4th respectively.

Fernando Alonso started off from the 3rd spot on the grid, but lost out to the quicker Jarno Trulli and Robert Kubica. The Spaniard, as we had predicted, was indeed on the light fuel strategy and was the earliest to go for a pitstop. He eventually finished 8th, behind his teammate Nelson Piquet Jr for once. Robert Kubica was the better BMW in a race where the team had a relatively quiet afternoon. For his teammate Nick Heidfeld, the only way was down as he lost 2 positions to finish 13th eventually. The announcement for the BMW drivers' lineup is in a few weeks' time and this is certainly not the way to impress your boss, Nick.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was clearly an unhappy man as he left the Magny Cours circuit without speaking to the press, obviously feeling every inch the victim of the stewards' decision to further penalise him through a drive-through penalty. He was battling with Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel when he went off the track slightly and yet came back ahead of the German rookie. Team principal Ron Dennis was seen pressing frantically at the FIA call button on the pitwall, but it did nothing to change the stewards' decision. The Brit ended the afternoon with nothing gained.

It was generally an afternoon of frustrations for the championship contenders other than Felipe Massa, who has his lucky stars to thank. Next race we will be at the Silverstone GP where it is the homerace of Hamilton. Will he choke in front of the home crowd, or will he stand up to the challenge? Kimi Räikkönen will definitely be twice as determined to gun for the top position again and spoil the English party as he feels the loss of what-might-have-been. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa will definitely keep a death-grip on the top of the Drivers' Championship - the closest he has ever been to achieving it. 

 Results
01 F. Massa Ferrari 1:31:50.245
02 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 17.984
03 J. Trulli Toyota + 28.250
04 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 28.929
05 R. Kubica BMW + 30.512
06 M. Webber Red Bull + 40.304
07 N. Piquet jr. Renault + 41.033
08 F. Alonso Renault + 43.372
09 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 51.072
10 L. Hamilton McLaren + 54.521
11 T. Glock Toyota + 57.738
12 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso + 58.011
13 N. Heidfeld BMW + 1:02.013
14 R. Barrichello Honda + 1 laps
15 K. Nakajima Williams + 1 laps
16 N. Rosberg Williams + 1 laps
17 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 1 laps
19 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 1 laps
Did not finish
20 J. Button Honda + 52 laps 

Timings from PlanetF1.com

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.

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