Massa took Magny-Cours this afternoon and also took the world championship lead from Robert Kubica. 

Raikkonen seemed to have it in the bag, certainly during the first half of the race, but the right-hand bank of his Ferrari’s exhaust broke off and the lose of horse power resulted in the lose of first place which went to his team mate. 

Jarno Trulli, Heikki Kovalainen and Robert Kubica gave the French crowd the most excitement of the day as they all fought a close battle for that final podium place. The Toyota of Jarno Trulli managed to hold off the McLaren and the BMW to take third. 

Lewis Hamilton did not have a good day. The young Brit made a move on Vettel’s Toro Rosso but then took a short cut at the Nurburgring chigane and incurred a drive through penalty from the stewards. Despite a valiant effort Hamilton could only finish the day in tenth. 

Alonso had a rather slow start that enabled both Trulli and Kubica to get past him. He managed to reclaim one place back when Kubica got stuck on the outside on the run down to the Adelaide hair pin while trying to take on Trulli. The Spanaird managed to get through on the exit. 

Before his penalty drive through Hamilton was making a great charge through the pack. He had taken Vettel and Coultahrd and was in tenth. The next car in his path was his team mate Kovalainen. He did make contact with the back end of the sister McLaren was no damage was done to either car. By lap 12 though, after getting caught up behind the Renault of Piquet, the confirmation came through of the drive through penalty which Lewis took immediately and he dropped back to 13^th place. 

Both Ferrari’s were charging away at the front by this stage. By lap nine they were both ten seconds in front of Jarno Trulli. He was doing well to keep Alonso and Kubica behind him when Alonso became the first of them to pit on lap 16. 

The Renault returned on to the track in front of Hamilton. Although Lewis took this place from the Spaniard he had to make his own pit stop at the end of that lap so the place was lost. 

Most of the top runners pitted around this point. Raikkonen was the first of the Ferrari’s to pit. Massa was four seconds behind the world champion but couldn’t seem to find any extra pace to reduce the Finn’s lead by the time he made his own pit stop. 

A much needed win seemed very much on the cards for Raikkonen by this stage. But from lap 34 his lap times were considerably slower; his six second lead was cancelled out within four laps. The exhaust pipe on his F2008 had come lose, losing vital horse power. Massa claimed the lead on lap 39 and took that lead to the chequered flag. 

A struggling Toyota of Tulli’s on the softer tyres meant Kimi was able to keep hold of his second position. This also enabled Kovalainen to put the Italian under real pressure for the remainder of the race. They went in side by side to the Imola chigane and almost touched wheels before Kovalainen eventually had to cut the chigane and therefore had to concede.

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