French Grand Prix

The red cars were untouchable during the qualifying sessions, and Kimi would have won the event back to back if his exhaust had not broken half way through, allowing Massa to pass and never look back.  But even with bits of the car falling off and less-than-ideal back pressure affecting the engine’s performance, the Finn was never seriously threatened for second place.  The 1-2 finish allowed Massa to move back to the top of the leader board on the driver’s championship and extended Ferrari’s lead in the constructor’s championship.  All is right in Modena, again.

The real winner this weekend was Jarno Trulli who finished third (no, that’s not a typo) and also won the Japanese bragging rights with Toyota’s first podium in three years.  What was surprising was the Italian’s ability to hold off McLaren’s Kovalainen.  You know that Ron Denis’s face turned more sour than usual with that result.  There were also plenty of German engineers muttering “was ist diese Scheiße” as they walked behind the garages, shaking their heads in disbelief.

Robert Kubica wasn’t able to generate any momentum for the Pole’s first win in Canada and was relegated to fifth place, giving himself enough points to keep Massa from running away with the lead.  But, it was a performance poor enough to remind the team that the car isn’t there yet and they have work to do when Kimi isn’t rear-ended during the race (also accompanied by more muttering in German, this time with a Bavarian accent)…

Mark Webber added insult to injury by finishing ahead of both Renaults on their home race.  Now that Flavio has gotten married, he wasn’t worried about a poor performance affecting his chances this weekend once all of the partying started up again after the checkered flag dropped.

What was surprising is how poorly Hamilton has dealt with the pressure of the expectations of winning.  Last year, he basically was trying to prove to the rest of the grid that he was the real thing.  Now that he has accomplished that, he hasn’t been able to deal with the pressure of all of the McLaren faithful expecting him to bring home the win against Ferrari, and more so, the expectation of doing it every weekend.  Yes, I know that he was penalized 10 positions for his inability to respond to a red light in Montreal, but there was no evidence of other world championship driver’s competitiveness to try and climb back through the field.  If you didn’t know that McLaren still believes they have a shot at both titles, you’d think his performance was just another also-ran’s lapping session.  Don’t believe the hype!

I hate to admit it, but the race really was a snoozer.  The commentators worldwide did try their best to drum up some excitement by reviewing the weather reports, but the few drops of rain that actually fell didn’t have any appreciable effect on the race.  As long as you caught the pass of the two Ferraris while you had your thumb on the TiVo fast forward button, you didn’t miss anything.  The bright side is that these races are at least shorter than NASCRAP, so if you need to do something else on a Sunday, you still have most of the day to get it done.  If you want to get out of the honey-do list or mowing the grass, you need to find another sport to watch.

The circus is staying in Europe and will be at Silverstone in two weeks.  Now that Bernie and his minions have pushed the English race back further in the schedule, rain is not a guarantee for the weekend.  Traffic on the other hand, is.  If you have the money, this is the race to take a helicopter to.  Otherwise, make sure the cooling system in your rental works because you will be sitting for a while.

Race Results

1	MASSA	Ferrari	1h31m50.245s
2	RAIKKONEN	Ferrari	+ 17.9s
3	TRULLI	Toyota	+ 28.2s
4	KOVALAINEN	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 28.9s
5	KUBICA	BMW Sauber	+ 30.5s
6	WEBBER	Red-Bull Renault	+ 40.3s
7	PIQUET	Renault	+ 41.0s
8	ALONSO	Renault	+ 43.3s
9	COULTHARD	Red Bull-Renault	+ 51.0s
10	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 54.5s
11	GLOCK	Toyota	+ 57.7s
12	VETTEL	STR-Ferrari	+ 58.0s
13	HEIDFELD	BMW Sauber	+ 62.0s
14	BARRICHELLO	Honda	+ 1 lap
15	NAKAJIMA	Williams-Toyota	+ 1 lap
16	ROSBERG	Williams-Toyota	+1 lap
17	BOURDAIS	STR-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
18	FISICHELLA	Force India-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
19	SUTIL	Force India-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
20	BUTTON	Honda	+ 54 laps, accident damage
Fastest Lap	RAIKKONEN	Ferrari	1hr16.630s

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	MASSA	Ferrari	48 Points
2	KUBICA	BMW Sauber	46 Points
3	RAIKKONEN	Ferrari	43 Points
4	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	38 Points
5	HEIDFELD	BMW Sauber	28 Points
6	KOVALAINEN	McLaren-Mercedes	20 Points
7	TRULLI	Toyota	18 Points
8	WEBBER	Red Bull-Renault	18 Points
9	ALONSO	Renault	10 Points
10	ROSBERG	Williams-Toyota	8 Points
11	NAKAJIMA	Williams-Toyota	7 Points
12	COULTHARD	Red Bull-Renault	6 Points
13	GLOCK	Toyota	5 Points
14	VETTEL	STR-Ferrari	5 Points
15	BARRICHELLO	Honda	5 Points
16	BUTTON	Honda	3 Points
17	PIQUET	Renault	2 Points
18	BOURDAIS	STR-Ferrari	2 Points

NOTE: Super Aguri withdrew from the championship after round four.

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	FERRARI	91 Points
2	BMW SAUBER	74 Points
3	MCLAREN-MERCEDES	58 Points
4	RED BULL-RENAULT	24 Points
5	TOYOTA	23 Points
6	WILLIAMS-TOYOTA	15 Points
7	RENAULT	12 Points
8	HONDA	8 Points
9	STR-FERRARI	7 Points

NOTE: Super Aguri withdrew from the championship after round four.