Massa the master at Magny-Cours
Felipe Massa won his third race of the season, and with it took over the lead of the Formula One world championship for the first time in his six-season career.
In taking the chequered flag in the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours, and on a momentous day for Massa, he also became the first Brazilian to top the drivers’ standings since his hero in Ayrton Senna led the way 15 years ago.
Massa now leads an enthralling four-way title race by two points from BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica, and five from Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen who came home second at the Circuit de Nevers.
As for Lewis Hamilton, a drive-through penalty early on – after starting from 13th on the grid – wrecked his bid for points, with the 23-year-old finishing 10th, and he now trails Massa by 10 points.
Hamilton must certainly feel as if the race stewards are against him at the moment as they compromised his early charge through the field with another penalty.
Starting from the lowest grid placing of his career after incurring a 10-place penalty for running into the back of Raikkonen in the pit lane in Canada a fortnight ago, Hamilton had made up three places by the end of the first lap.
However, the stewards deemed his pass on the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel to be outside the rules, and they hammered the exuberant Briton again, and with it any hope of a top-eight finish, despite a sterling effort over the second half of the 70-lap race.
Hamilton duly took his punishment on lap 13, and perhaps with a touch of irony he was relegated to his starting position of 13th – a case of having to do it all over again.
On this occasion, though, the remainder of the field ahead of him were strung out across the circuit rather than a handful of yards down the pit straight.
Hamilton will at least have enjoyed his pass on old rival Fernando Alonso a couple of laps later, shooting down the inside of the Renault that was first to officially pit, bumping tyres with the Spaniard at one point.
That was pretty much in vain, though, as he made his first pit for new tyres and fuel shortly after, and with it he was relegated to 19th and last due to the retirement of Jenson Button in his Honda.
Button had clipped the Toro Rosso of Sebastien Bourdais from behind on the opening lap, damaging his front nose which eventually dislodged underneath his car.
Although he made a stop for a replacement, he had also ruined his barge boards that affect downforce, and his race was run after 16 laps.
At that stage Raikkonen and Massa were proving they were in a class of their own, with the Finn seemingly having the upper hand after the first round of pit stops after which he began to pull away from his team-mate.
But then Massa slowly started to reel in the Finn as each lap passed, and it soon became clear why as he had sustained damage to his rear tailpipe, that finally worked loose 10 laps from home, resulting in him finishing 18 seconds adrift.
But it was just beyond the halfway point Massa made his move on Raikkonen, and from that moment the race was effectively run as far as the two leaders were concerned.
It then became a question of who would finish behind them, and for the first time in just over two years since Ralf Schumacher at the Australian Grand Prix in April 2006, a Toyota joined the Ferraris on the podium.
Jarno Trulli managed to hold off Heikki Kovalainen in the closing laps that were run in very light rain, with the McLaren driver settling for fourth after starting 10th due to a five-place grid penalty after baulking Mark Webber in qualifying yesterday.
Kubica claimed fifth, with Webber sixth in his Red Bull, followed by the Renault of Nelson Piquet, the Brazilian finally in the points for the first time in his rookie season, edging out team-mate Alonso into eighth after the double world champion had made a mistake late on.
