Turkish Delight

Ferrari's Felipe Massa won his second consecutive Turkish Grand Prix on Sunday, beating teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

Two-time defending Formula One champion Fernando Alonso of McLaren was third.

Overall leader Lewis Hamilton of McLaren had been in third place but dropped to fifth after shredding a tire on the 43rd lap. Nick Heidfeld was fourth.

At the end of the 58-lap race, Massa was 2.2 seconds ahead of Raikkonen, with Alonso 26 seconds back. Hamilton was 45 seconds behind Massa.

With five races left, Alonso gained on his teammate after being as low as sixth in the early stages of the race.

In the overall standings, Hamilton's lead was cut to five points over Alonso, 84-79. Massa is third with 69 points and Raikkonen is next with 68.

The Ferraris and McLarens continue to divide the races. In the 12 races so far, Alonso, Hamilton Massa and Raikkonen have won three each.

Massa made a reversal after his last race. He finished 13th in the Hungarian GP on Aug. 5 after a disappointing qualifying run that made him start from the back of the grid.

"Three Grands Prix here, two wins. Can't be better," Massa said. "Starting from pole, good car, difficult race. I managed to keep my concentration."

At the start Sunday, the two Ferrari drivers went to the top positions with Hamilton third. Alonso was beaten to the first turn by the two BMW-Sauber drivers and was sixth after the first lap. After five laps, he was more than seven seconds from first and, more important, almost five behind Hamilton.

"If someone told me on lap two you would be on the podium ... I would be very happy," Alonso said. "At the end, the final result is the best thing of the weekend."

Alonso was penalized five spots on the starting grid for the Hungarian GP after delaying his teammate in the pits in the final minutes of qualifying, although Hamilton refused to let Alonso pass him earlier, contrary to McLaren team orders. Hamilton won and Alonso was fourth.

At 10 laps Sunday it was still the two Ferraris ahead of Hamilton, with Alonso about 10 seconds back. Alonso was able to move into fourth past Heidfeld and Robert Kubica at the first pit stop, but he was still losing time.

Raikkonen closed to within a second.

"I made a small, small mistake and Kimi closed the gap," Massa said. "Just a small mistake made my life difficult."

Raikkonen said the result was predictable after Saturday when Massa was first, two places ahead of the Finnish driver.

"In Formula One these days the race is pretty much decided after qualifying," Raikkonen said.

Things changed on the 43rd lap when Hamilton was flapping rubber from his shredded front tire while in third place. Hamilton managed to make it to the pits to change the tire but Alonso moved into third and Heidfeld was fourth.

"I saw some bits fly off the tire," Hamilton said. "It was lucky I didn't put the car in the gravel and managed to control it back to the pits as this meant that in the end I only lost two places."

Hamilton said the tire cost him a place on the podium.

"I was pushing obviously. Without a doubt we would have finished third. I still had six laps more fuel than the Ferraris. I was hoping in those six laps I could get Kimi," Hamilton said.

"Then the tire went."

Renault's Heikki Kovalainen was sixth, followed by Nico Rosberg of Williams and Kubica.

The next race is the Italian Grand Prix on Sept. 9, followed by the Belgian Grand Prix a week later.

Ferrari

Founded in 1929, Scuderia Ferrari is the oldest and most successful of all Formula 1 teams. Founded by Enzo Ferrari, a race driver himself, the original avatar of Scuderia Ferrari was to be a sponsor for amateur drivers for various races. But as time went on, Ferrari became a full-fledged team. In the initial days, Ferrari would race mostly for Alfa Romeo but eventually, he moved on to set up his own establishment.

Ferrari had been in readiness to enter Formula 1 racing on their own, but World War II put a hold on these plans. Eventually, in 1948, they debuted as a racing team at the Italian GP and their first win came with Giuseppe Farina. Though they participated in Formula 1's first season in 1950; they were not as good as the Alfa Romeo cars and had to wait until 1952 for their first taste of success. Changes in regulations helped them and they won the Drivers' championship that year. Repeating their success three more times in the decade (1953, 56 and 58) and establishing themselves as a top notch team.

More success in the 1960s and 1970s including five Drivers' titles and six Constructors' titles kept them at the helm of the sport. But after early success in the 1980s (two Driver's titles in 1982 and 1983), they faded away. In the early part of the 1990s, Ferrari enjoyed minor successes with Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger, but these were short-lived. After a change of affairs at the helm forced by the signing of Michael Schumacher in 1996, the team saw a brief period of rise that included many wins and a realistic challenge for the title in 1997, but they could not complete the job.

The new millennium brought about a huge change in fortunes as Michael Schumacher won the title in 2000, Ferrari's first since 1979 and started an era of domination that would end with a fifth successive title for the driver in 2004. During this period, Ferrari would be virtually unbeatable as a constructor too winning the title on all five occasions. The team of Schumacher and Barrichello has been one of the most dominant in motorsport for a long time. There was some criticism levelled at them, though, for insisting that Schumacher be the winning driver while Barrichello was always the bridesmaid!

Over the last two years, Ferrari's results have not been as good and Schumacher announced his retirement after his second unsuccessful year in 2006. The 2007 season holds much hope for Ferrari and the F2007 car has been impressive in testing. In Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, the scarlet team does have an experienced set of drivers, and all the signs point to a return to the top for the Scuderia.


Team Boss: Jean Todt

Races: 751

Race Wins: 197

Constructor's Championships: 14

Engine: Ferrari V8 056

Chassis: F2007 - Ferrari

Suspension: Sachs

Brakes: Brembo Carbon

Tyres: Bridgestone

Transmission: Semi-auto 7 speeds

Other:
Engine power: Over 18,500 rpm
GearBox: 7-speed unit + reverse
Weight: 605 kgs (including driver, camera and ballast)
Dimensions: 4545 mm x 1796 mm x 959 mm
Valves: 4 valves per cylinder; pneumatic valve system
Total displacement: 2.4 litres


Team Personnel:
Team manager: Jean Todt
Designer: Aldo Costa
Chief engineer: Gilles Simon
Drivers: Kimi Raikkönen (Finland), Felipe Massa (Brazil)
Test driver: Luca Badoer, Marc Gene

Alonso weathers the storm to win Nurburgring thriller

Double world champion Fernando Alonso brilliantly won the European Grand Prix as confusion reigned at the Nurburgring.

Alonso's third win of the season leaves him just two points behind McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton in the overall drivers' standings.

The Spaniard made the most of his opportunity when torrential rain and car failures combined to leave him in a straight fight with Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

Alonso passed Massa superbly in the closing stages to win by eight seconds from the Brazilian, Australian Mark Webber was third for Red Bull Racing.

Massa's teammate Kimi Raikkonen started from pole position but his poor record on the German circuit continued as he was forced to retire after 34 laps.

It was also a tough weekend for leader Hamilton who finished ninth.

A bad crash in qualifying left Hamilton starting from tenth on the grid and his record run of nine podium finishes in nine races was always likely to end after he spun off the track early on.

Hamilton's Mclaren was eventually lifted back onto the track by a crane but the rookie rejoined the race at the back of the field, a lap behind and with too much ground to make up.

Alex Wurz of Williams was fourth ahead of Red Bull's David Coulthard in fifth with Nick Heidfeld sixth for BMW.

The final point-scorers were Heidfeld's teammate Robert Kubica and Heikki Kovalainen of Renault who were seventh and eighth respectively.

The race started in a sprinkling of rain, Massa darted past Alonso into second place while Kubica and Heidfeld collided just behind.

Heidfeld, the German racing in front of his home crowd, came off worse and had to go into the pits for extensive repairs.

Then the heavens opened. Track conditions quickly became treacherous and the need for wet weather tyres became obvious.

All the cars had to crowd into the pitlane except for debutant Markus Winkelhock of the Spyker team.

The 27-year-old German had made an instant decision when the rain began and headed into the pits as the race started.

Incredibly, as all kinds of havoc broke out around him, Winkelhock found himself in the lead by over 30 seconds.

The deluge was so torrential that even the wet tyres could not provide sufficient grip.

Hamilton, Scott Speed of Torro Rosso, Nico Rosberg of Williams, Adrian Sutil of Spyker, Jenson Button of Honda and Speed's teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi each slid off the track, the first four all at the opening corner.

Sutil, Rosberg, Speed, Liuzzi and Button were all out of the race, the Briton later describing the first section of the circuit as a "lake".

As the complete chaos threatened to turn into farce the race was stopped for twenty minutes so order could be restored.

Twenty minutes later bright sunshine had broken out as the race resumed behind the safety car.

Winkelhock led from Massa and Alonso as the cars went round the track in a procession for four laps but when the racing began the Spyker man soon began to slip back.

The cars began to change back to dry tyres after 12 laps as the race reverted to some kind of normality. Winkelhock's big day ended in misery after he was forced to retire by an engine failure.

Raikkonen had restarted in seventh place but he was soon tucked in behind Massa and Alonso as the three leaders began to open up a gap from Mark Webber in fourth place.

Further back, Heidfeld, perhaps smarting from his earlier troubles, made an aggressive move to overtake Ralf Schumacher.

The two cars touched sending Schumacher's Toyota into the gravel and out of the race.

Raikkonen was the next man to go, his Ferrari letting him down on lap 34 and leaving Massa and Alonso to fight for the victory.

The rain returned with eight laps remaining and after the cars changed back to wet tyres Alonso began a relentless attack on Massa's lead. Again and again the Spaniard tried to pass and Massa had to defend desperately.

Eventually Alonso squeezed through around the outside of the Ferrari, the two cars briefly making contact before Massa was forced to yield and settle for second place.

Stepney hits back against Ferrari

Former Ferrari employee Nigel Stepney has turned the legal spotlight on the Italian team after he was forced to flee the country earlier this month.

Stepney, formerly head of performance development, was sacked after being accused of leaking secrets to McLaren.

But lawyers are investigating whether Ferrari were involved in the high-speed car chases that dogged the Briton.

Ferrari could be the subject of criminal proceedings if evidence suggests they have been spying on him.

Stepney told the Observer newspaper that he had been followed by more than one car, with Italian plates, and when he cornered one of them, the men inside refused to speak to him.

His lawyer Sonia Bartolini told Italian newspaper La Repubblica: "At the right time we'll draw our conclusions. At the moment we're trying to trace the car plates to the subjects that followed Stepney, and then we'll file a complaint.

"Obviously, if it is confirmed that Ferrari are behind this, it would be very serious. It's one thing to keep an employee under control at the workplace, but it's quite another to spy on him at his home and to follow him at night.

"If that was the case, the Maranello [Ferrari] people will be called to answer for it in court."

Ferrari's legal representatives have launched an investigation into alleged espionage and sabotage involving Stepney and McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan.

McLaren have been summoned by the FIA, Formula One's governing body, to an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council to explain how Coughlan came to be in possession of a 780-page document relating to Ferrari's 2007 car.

An FIA spokesman would not comment when asked by the BBC to confirm a report in La Repubblica that McLaren chief Coughlan had shown the documents to several colleagues at McLaren.

The newspaper quoted from what it claimed to be the affidavit Coughlan had submitted to Ferrari as part of legal proceedings brought by the team against him in the UK.

According to the newspaper, Coughlan said in the affidavit that all his McLaren colleagues distanced themselves from the documents and advised him to destroy them.

La Repubblica said Coughlan had not confirmed that his source for the documents was Stepney, who has denied supplying them. The report said Coughlan had only said he had received them via a courier service.

McLaren could be docked points or even disqualified from the world championship this year if they are found guilty under article 151c of F1's International Sporting Code.

This deals with "any fraudulent conduct, or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition, or to the interests of motor sport generally".

McLaren issued a statement last week expressing their "extreme disappointment" at being charged and denying all the allegations.

They say the dossier at the centre of the controversy was solely Coughlan's responsibility.

"The documents and confidential information were only in the possession of one currently suspended employee on an unauthorised basis and no element of it has been used in relation to McLaren's Formula One cars," the statement said.

But Ferrari lawyer Massimiliano Maestretti told RAI television there was still some uncertainty over who knew abouyt the documents and when some were delivered to Coughlan.

"The McLaren statement mentioned the documents were received at the end of April," he was quoted as saying, "but we have proof that there were more later than that with a May date."

Raikkonen gatecrashes Hamilton party

Kimi Raikkonen spectacularly gatecrashed Lewis Hamilton's hoped-for British Grand Prix party by claiming his first Silverstone victory.

All the hype had surrounded Hamilton in the build-up to the race, in particular after the world championship leader put his McLaren on pole.

But it was Ferrari star Raikkonen who stole his thunder, claiming back-to-back victories for the first time in almost two years.

Hamilton was forced to settle for third - extending his run of podium finishes to nine - as a combination of one bad pit stop and seemingly poor tyre choice allowed team-mate Fernando Alonso to take second.

But with eight grands prix remaining, Hamilton still has a 12-point lead over Alonso, with Raikkonen now third in the title race and 18 points adrift.

Felipe Massa has dropped to fourth in the standings as he could only take fifth after an aborted start led to him beginning the race from the pit lane instead of from fourth on the grid.

The Brazilian, though, still managed to blitz his way through the field to claim four precious points.

As such, if he had managed a clean getaway, he would almost certainly have knocked Hamilton off the podium for the first time.

But what a shame for Hamilton, in particular after making the start he would have dreamed about overnight.

McLaren, though, gambled by preferring the harder compound tyre from the off, compared to the soft option for the Ferraris, so giving them extra grip.

Once the five red lights disappeared at least there was no repeat of Hamilton's poor start in the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours a week ago.

On that occasion Hamilton was overtaken - for the first time in his Formula One career - by Raikkonen, helping the Finn to his second win for the Maranello marque.

This time around Hamilton was clean away, cutting from left to right across the track to defend the inside line heading into the first corner at Copse.

It was perfect, but at no stage over the following 16 laps was Hamilton able to open any kind of gap on Raikkonen, who remained within a second as he hounded the young Briton.

At one stage on lap 14 'The Iceman' was virtually alongside his McLaren rival, whose first stop two laps later did not go to plan.

Hamilton went to pull away as the lollipop man flicked the sign telling him to engage first gear, despite the fact his car was still being refuelled.

With clean air for two laps Raikkonen put his foot to the floor, and it proved crucial as he emerged from the pit lane ahead of Hamilton.

That battle, though, had deflected the attention off Alonso, who had managed to stay on the coat-tails of the leading duo over the first third of the race.

When he pitted on lap 20 for a 6.3secs stop, it came as a major surprise when he grabbed the lead, with Raikkonen and Hamilton in his wing mirrors.

From that moment hopes of a win on home soil disappeared for the 22-year-old because as the laps ebbed away, so he dropped further and further behind Alonso.

It then became a battle between Alonso and Raikkonen, who held a gap of around five seconds to the Spaniard throughout the middle stint until the second round of pit stops.

Raikkonen stayed out six laps longer than Alonso, providing the second turning point of the race as the Ferrari star reversed the positions, and with it ultimately taking the victory by 2.4secs.

Robert Kubica was fourth for the second successive race for BMW Sauber, holding off Massa in the final third of the race in an enthralling battle.

The remaining points places were taken by the second BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld, followed by the Renaults of Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella.

In the constructors' battle, McLaren hold their 25-point cushion to Ferrari.

British Grand Prix Results

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	6	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	59	Winner	2	10
2	1	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Mercedes	59	+2.4 secs	3	8
3	2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	59	+39.3 secs	1	6
4	10	Robert Kubica	BMW	59	+53.3 secs	5	5
5	5	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	59	+54.0 secs	4	4
6	9	Nick Heidfeld	BMW	59	+56.3 secs	9	3
7	4	Heikki Kovalainen	Renault	58	+1 Lap	7	2
8	3	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	58	+1 Lap	8	1
9	8	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	58	+1 Lap	14
10	7	Jenson Button	Honda	58	+1 Lap	18
11	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	58	+1 Lap	12
12	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	58	+1 Lap	17
13	17	Alexander Wurz	Williams-Toyota	58	+1 Lap	13
14	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	57	+2 Laps	21
15	21	Christijan Albers	Spyker-Ferrari	57	+2 Laps	22
16	18	Vitantonio Liuzzi	STR-Ferrari	53	+6 Laps	16
Ret	12	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	43	+16 Laps	10
Ret	23	Anthony Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	35	+24 Laps	19
Ret	19	Scott Speed	STR-Ferrari	29	+30 Laps	15
Ret	11	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	22	+37 Laps	6
Ret	20	Adrian Sutil	Spyker-Ferrari	16	+43 Laps	20
Ret	15	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	8	+51 Laps	11

The British Grand Prix Preview

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton firmly believes that he can win this weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone - the first time he will ever race a Formula One car in front of his fellow countrymen.

That is despite Ferrari’s speed here in recent testing and sudden return to form in Magny-Cours - and in spite of all the scandal that has blown up following allegations that a senior McLaren engineer received stolen intellectual property from Ferrari and the ensuing suspension of that engineer.

Both of these factors will add to any pressure Hamilton feels racing at home, but he is convinced that he can join a long list of Britons who have won the British Grand Prix: Sir Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks, Peter Collins, Jim Clark, David Coulthard, Sir Jackie Stewart, James Hunt, Nigel Mansell, John Watson, Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert.

“You can’t win every race, and the most important thing is to be consistent, which I think we are,” he said after finishing third at Magny-Cours. “Both the Ferrari drivers said they made a good step forward, but when you are behind people, as we were in Magny-Cours, it’s a lot harder to show your true pace. I don’t think they were as quick, as much faster than us, as it looked today. Traffic and strategy had a lot to do with that, so I still think we can bounce back at Silverstone, without a doubt.

“I don’t think Ferrari’s sudden speed is worrying. It just shows they’ve made a great step forward and had a slightly better strategy than us. We were always on a three-stop strategy but what happened at the start affected that. After I had made my third pit stop I was a long way behind Felipe so there was no point in me wrenching the neck out of the engine trying to catch him. Throughout the race we were quite consistent on speed, but we need a little more. I am sure that we will make another improvement before Silverstone.

“To be honest, in France I was not disappointed. I don’t like to be overtaken, but that’s the same for everyone. But I was on the podium again and we are the most consistent team and I think we are doing a better job. I have extended my lead in the World Championship, so I couldn’t be happier.

“It is a great feeling to go to Silverstone as the World Championship leader. To do so certainly seemed unimaginable at the start of the season. I’m very, very happy with the job I’ve done and the team have done and I go into my first British GP with the team I always wanted to drive for, and that’s one of the greatest feelings a driver can have.”

After scoring his (and Honda’s) first point of the season, Jenson Button is also feeling a little more upbeat ahead of his home race. “Silverstone will be fun because I have a lot of friends and family coming and the fans treat you the same way even when things are tough. The fans at Silverstone have always been fantastic and there are four Brits to cheer on, so the lead-up will be hectic.”

David Coulthard and Anthony Davidson (in his first British Grand Prix) are both seeking points finishes for Red Bull and Super Aguri respectively, while BMW Sauber and Renault will re-engage their battle for third place overall as Williams look to do well on home ground, Toyota hope to reproduce the speed Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher displaced in the test here in June, and Toro Rosso hope their seamless shift gearbox will translate into Red Bull-matching lap times. With their factory just over the road from the circuit, Spyker would also like to take something good home from this one.

On paper, however, Ferrari are looking very strong. “We are back where we expect to be. You could feel the improvement in the car everywhere, really. In every corner,” Raikkonen said after his second win of the season, which brought the score to two apiece for the four leading contenders.

One thing that may well bring in a degree of uncertainty to the overall equation is the weather, with rain forecast for each day.

Sunday quotes: Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen(P1):
"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(P2):
"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."

Jean Todt (Team Principal):
"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."

Luca Baldisserri (Head of Track Operations):
"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."

Raikkonen hailed in Italy

The notorious Italian press heralded the apparent return to form of Kimi Raikkonen and his Ferrari team after the French grand prix on Sunday.

Corriere dello Sport said the famous outfit from Maranello "awoke from its slumber" at Magny Cours following three recent defeats.

And Finland's Raikkonen "drove like Schumi. After Ferrari's one-two victory the world championship is open again".

"Kimi's slump has come to an end. Now the Finn has a real chance for the title."

Tuttosport agreed: "Raikkonen is back, and with the double (one two) victory a crisis is over."

La Gazzetta dello Sport added: "Raikkonen did not have a simple task to take Schumacher's place. But in Magny Cours he proved again that he also has the talent of the German."

La Repubblica also focused on 27-year-old Raikkonen, after he struggled in recent races to match the pace of his previously less-rated teammate Felipe Massa.

"The difficult phase for him is over," the newspaper observed. "He struck a large blow at his critics and can now go on to prove that he is a worthy successor for Schumi".

Spain's Diario As turned to Fernando Alonso's continuing problems, remarking that the reigning world champion "tried everything" to rise above his seventh place.

But at least "Ferrari's success reduced the damage with regards to (Lewis) Hamilton," the newspaper wrote.

"Alonso continues to lose ground in the championship while Ferrari dominated the race from A to Z", 'Sport' added, while Marca agreed: "Thanks, Ferrari! Your double victory prevented Hamilton from extending his lead too much more".

Ferrari dismiss Stepney

Ferrari has dismissed Nigel Stepney, the engineer at the centre of an as yet undisclosed legal investigation currently underway.

Following an internal investigation and disciplinary procedure, the team confirmed that the Englishman – currently on holiday in the Philippines – is ‘no longer an employee’ of Ferrari

Details of the charge against Stepney are unknown, but rumours range from attempted sabotage of the Ferrari cars around the time of the Monaco Grand Prix, to concerns that he was about to leave to join Honda, taking a number of Ferrari employees with him.

Stepney – through his lawyer – has denied any wrong-doing, and expressed confidence that he will be cleared while claiming the affair is part of a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign on behalf of Ferrari

He is due to return to Italy later this week, and is expected to hold a press conference soon after.

Raikkonen wins as Ferrari dominate in France

Kimi Raikkonen returned to form in style when he claimed an emphatic victory in the French Grand Prix as Ferrari delivered a dominant one-two triumph.

Finn Raikkonen, 27, came home two seconds ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Brazilian Felipe Massa as the Italian team ended rivals McLaren's three race sequence of victories.

It was Raikkonen's first win since the season-opening Australian race in Melbourne on March 18, his second of the season and the 11th of his career and a memorable way of saying 'adieu' to the remote Magny-Cours circuit, hosting the French race for the final time.

It meant also that after eight races this year four drivers have shared the victories with two apiece and, for Raikkonen, it was a powerful response to doubters who have suggested he lacked the discipline and resolve to become a successful Ferrari driver after his move from McLaren.

Massa, who led for more than half of the race, finished second ahead of 22-year-old British rookie Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren Mercedes-Benz, a result that meant the young Englishman extended his lead in the drivers' championship.

His team-mate and chief rival defending double drivers' champion Fernando Alonso of Spain, who started from 10th position on the grid, was unable to fight his way through the field and finished seventh.

Massa puts Ferrari on pole as Alonso hits trouble

Ferrari's Felipe Massa will start Sunday's French Grand Prix from pole position, with the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton alongside him and team mate Kimi Raikkonen right behind.

World champion Fernando Alonso, however, is only tenth on the provisional grid after his car was struck down with gearbox problems early in the final phase of qualifying, preventing him from setting a time.

With the Spaniard out of the running, what looked set to be an epic climax to the fight between silver and red ultimately failed to materialise - Massa, Hamilton and Raikkonen were all unable to improve their positions after their first Q3 runs.

Thus Massa retained pole, with a lap of 1m 15.034s, while Hamilton shaved down from 1m 15.185s to 1m 15.104s, which was not sufficient to affect his front row position after he lost a little momentum in Turn 15, and Raikkonen remained third on 1m 15.257s.

Behind them, Giancarlo Fisichella bumped Robert Kubica from fourth with a lap of 1m 15.674s for Renault, only to have the BMW Sauber driver retake the position with 1m 15.493s in the two teams’ war over third place in the constructors’ championship.

Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen once again backed team mate Fisichella strongly with sixth place on 1m 15.826s, pipping Nick Heidfeld who was sufficiently recovered from Friday’s back problems to lap his BMW Sauber in 1m 15.900s. Jarno Trulli was Toyota’s only runner to make Q3, and will start eighth on 1m 15.935s, and Nico Rosberg once again got his Williams through for ninth place and 1m 16.328s.

Ralf Schumacher celebrated his birthday with 11th place on 1m 15.534s, albeit as the first not to get through to Q3, and will have former BMW Williams team mate Jenson Button for company on row six, the Englishman lapping his Honda in 1m 15.584s. Button’s team mate Rubens Barrichello was 13th on 1m 15.761s, ahead of Red Bull’s Mark Webber on 1m 15.806s. Toro Rosso’s Scott Speed (1m 16.049s) and David Coulthard (no time, after not running in Q2 due to gearbox problems) were 15th and 16th.

Tonio Liuzzi was the first faller in Q1, lapping his Toro Rosso in 1m 16.142s to lose out to Barrichello by two-thousands of a second. Alex Wurz was 18th for Williams on 1m 16.241s, followed by Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson for Super Aguri (1m 16.244s and 1m 16.366s respectively) and the Spykers of Christijan Albers and Adrian Sutil (1m 17.826s and 1m 17.915s before his car rolled to a halt in Turn 9).

Driver quotes after Friday Practice at Magny-Cours

Ferrari topped the lap times during Friday’s Free Practice at Magny-Cours but perhaps the biggest surprise was the Toro Rossos of Scott Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi, who posted the third and fifth quickest times.

Felipe Massa: "Today we were quick and we have found a good balance right from the first few laps in this morning's session. I think the work which culminated in the test session at Silverstone is beginning to produce results. We were competitive and I think that can continue for the rest of the weekend. The harder tyre seems more consistent in terms of performance, while the softer one seems to give more grip, which will be useful for qualifying."

Kimi Räikkönen: "I would say that this was quite a positive day. We worked well and I think we can be competitive this weekend. The car went well right from the morning, but there is still room for improvement. However, as usual on a Friday, it is hard to say what the real pecking order is in the field. The performance of the two types of tyre we have here is pretty similar, even if I never managed to get a clean run with the softer on and so it's hard for me to say which is quicker."

Scott Speed: “I am not sure exactly where we stand, as you don't know what the others are doing in terms of fuel load. Certainly we were on the low side when I did my quickest lap. The gearbox is definitely a step forward and the car was not bad today. We struggled a bit from understeer. This afternoon, I had a few problems, including one with the steering wheel, that prevented us from getting through all our programme, apart from looking at the tyre comparison and even that was not so conclusive as I had a problem on the warm-up lap for my last run. Generally, we look more competitive than we have in past races. Now we just need to work hard, keep our heads down and try not to make any mistakes for the rest of the weekend.”

Lewis Hamilton: “This morning was a little frustrating as I missed some track time when the engine protection system came in as a result of the engine running too cool and I stopped on track. Luckily the car was returned with about 45 minutes of the session still to run so I still managed to get quite a few laps in and completed our planned programme in the afternoon session.”

Vitantonio Liuzzi: “Maybe the quick times look nicer than they are in reality. We still have to work on improving the balance of the car, as the handling is not perfect yet. Even so, it is nice to see our names near the top of the order, at least on paper. Now we need to work on improving our traction and front end grip. For sure we are more competitive as the car has made a big step forward, mainly with the new seamless shift gearbox, which makes for much quicker changes. However, the other teams have probably also improved in other areas. Tomorrow, we will work on generally improving the set up, but we can look to the rest of the weekend in a positive frame of mind.”

David Coulthard: “A normal Friday session today, evaluating tyres, chasing balance and getting the car set ahead of tomorrow. The times were promising, but I don’t really get too excited about them on a Friday, as qualifying is the important thing.”

Nico Rosberg: “I didn't feel very good about my first runs out on the track but we managed to improve the set-up quite a lot today. We discovered some interesting things and tyre-wise we found some good results as well. As is usual this season, it's not immediately obvious how we'll work the two tyres, but we will go through that this evening. It's a lot of fun to drive on this track because of the new tarmac which gives it a lot more grip. My general feeling today is positive even if there are still some things we need to improve for tomorrow.”

Fernando Alonso: “We managed to complete our programme, and we have a good understanding of the Bridgestone Potenza tyres characteristics in these cooler than expected temperatures. We could have been faster today, and there is still a little bit of work to do tomorrow on the set-up. However I think we will be stronger over the weekend than we appear today and so I am not too worried about the results so far.”

Anthony Davidson: “I am happy with our day's work. We found a good balance for the new tyres close to the end of the day and I'm obviously pleased to be so high up on the timesheets. We found some quite big differences between the tyre options and I think that every team will find them a challenge for the rest of the weekend.”

Ralf Schumacher: “That was a reasonable day’s work. The car was reliable in both sessions so we did quite a lot of work on different set-ups, as well as getting information on the different tyre compounds. There seems to be quite a bit of difference between the medium and the soft tyres so we will have to look at the data and see what we do in terms of strategy. Track temperature was lower than usual here because of the cooler weather but that didn’t cause any problems and it is the same for everyone anyway. The car definitely improved during the two sessions so I am optimistic for the weekend but the battle in the midfield is very tight so it is difficult to say exactly where we are this weekend. Our target for tomorrow is clearly to get into Q3, I was very close to that in Indianapolis and I hope to achieve it this time.”

Giancarlo Fisichella: “I had a pretty good day. We did lots of laps and completed the programme, which is always the first objective. The changes we made to the set-up were good, and I felt really comfortable out on track. The times and handling balance were quite consistent on the long runs, which is an important factor for the race, and I don't think the position will look too bad once we have completed our analysis. There's still more progress to come from our work overnight, but I think we have a good starting point to work from.”

Robert Kubica: “After starting the day with some steering problems, which meant missing the first hour of running, everything went smoothly this afternoon. We have nearly completed our programme with quite a lot of set-up work. I am happy to be back in the car, we have to work for tomorrow, but generally the car’s balance is not too bad.”

Alexander Wurz: “We had a very interesting Friday session and ran through the programme according to plan, the only shame is that there were some yellow flags out when I was on my quickest lap. Now we have to go through the information to improve our set-up and make the correct tyre choice. The circuit was okay today, but just a little slippery. That's like every other venue on a Friday though and it provided a good foundation for consistent work.”

Jarno Trulli: “We went through some set-up work and also looked at tyre performance so it was a productive day and now we understand more about the direction we should take with the car. We suffered from a bit of understeer in some places during the day but in general the car seems quite good. Now we will have to work hard with the information we have and try to make more improvements before qualifying. We will have to wait and see where we stand in terms of performance because it is hard to judge on a Friday. We had a great race in the US with my sixth place but every race is a different challenge and it depends a lot on many variables, things like the weather, how the car is suited to the circuit and so on. For tomorrow I aim to qualify in the top 10 again so I can fight for more points in the race.”

Jenson Button: "It was a typical Friday practice for us today as we focused on evaluating the tyres and finding the best set-up on the car. Most of the runs went fairly smoothly with Rubens and myself covering a lot of laps, giving us plenty of data to work with overnight. It was pretty windy out there today which will make the data comparisons more tricky, but the conditions are the same for everyone."

Mark Webber: “I’d just started a long run in the second session and the car suffered a transmission problem, so I had to stop. The second session on a Friday is important, so it’s a shame that we couldn’t run for all of the time, but we’ll get information on the problem tonight and look into it ready for tomorrow.”

Heikki Kovalainen: “The car balance isn't quite where I want it to be at the moment, and that was costing me time today - especially as I also had some traffic on my last timed laps on new tyres. But that is something we can tune overnight, to be honest. The important thing was to do the programme, make some good set-up changes, and give ourselves a platform for tomorrow. I think we managed that successfully, and we know the direction we need to go overnight. There is still work to be done, and some time to be found in the car, but I think we will look better tomorrow, than the timesheets suggest right now.”

Rubens Barrichello: "I thought the car was a little more competitive today, although that isn't necessarily represented by our position on the time sheets. We struggled a little with the balance of the car during the morning session, particularly with the rear end, but it improved over the course of the day. Unfortunately I didn't get my last run on the new tyres this afternoon due to the yellow flags after a car went off the track. That would have improved my lap time a little for sure. Still, we have a lot of information to look over this evening to try to improve for qualifying tomorrow."

Nick Heidfeld: “The practice sessions have been okay so far and, anyway, I like driving on this circuit. I stopped early because I wanted to save my back. Last week at the Silverstone test I had some problems. I can still feel it and as a precaution I want to have it checked today.”

Takuma Sato: “The day was quite interesting because the two tyre options behaved differently, so we need to analyze the large amount of data we were able to collect today. We also ran some new aero developments and there were a few good points from them. The car ran reliably and with no problems, so I think that it was a positive day.”

Adrian Sutil: “I am not happy with today, I cannot find a balance I am happy with on the car. With one set-up I have a lot of understeer and with another I have oversteer; it is difficult to find a middle ground. We have a lot of work to do and we have to check all the data and see what we can do for tomorrow.”

Christijan Albers: “In the first session I was actually pretty happy with the car and I think we were making some good progress, but in the second session I touched the kerb on the exit of turn 12 and went straight ahead. Unfortunately this damaged the car and I couldn't continue. I am disappointed as we still had two new sets of tyres to use and we could have improved the time. We did make some steps though and we will have to see what will happen tomorrow.”

Räikkönen admits season not gone to plan

Kimi Räikkönen admitted the first half the Formula One season has not gone according to plan.

The Ferrari driver is currently 26 points adrift from championship leader Lewis Hamilton and has not won a race since his debut for the Italian squad in Australia.

“For sure we don’t expect to be in this position but that’s racing and I think we just try to improve, try to get things how we like and try to start winning races and that’s our main goal,” he told reporters on the eve of the French Grand Prix.

“I think I expect better results but there are certain things that haven’t been right and we try to improve those and then hopefully at some point we will get it right and we can get the results that we want and I can drive how I want,” he revealed. “This seems to take a bit of a longer time.”

Despite a positive test last week’s at Silverstone, the Finnish driver was cautious for this weekend’s French Grand Prix.

“You can always see the results from testing but you don’t know what the other teams are doing,” he said.

“I think we have improved the car, for sure. The car felt very good at Silverstone but this a different circuit, a different place. We need to wait until the race, until the qualifying to see how it goes, but we have a positive feeling about it.”

Räikkönen Confident

Kimi Räikkönen is said to be feeling “very confident” for the upcoming French Grand Prix, following a successful test at Silverstone.

"Last week was a perfect week," said the Finnish driver. "We had a very good test in Silverstone: the car was much better than at the races in North America. So I'm really very confident of the race in Magny-Cours.

“We have new components, above all in the section of aerodynamics; and we have taken a step forward as far as the performance is concerned: if it is enough, we'll only know in France, when we go on the track under the same conditions as our competitors.

“This is the question mark you always carry with you after the tests. What we know for sure is that we think that we are competitive."

Räikkönen insisted he was growing in confidence with the Ferrari car and now has to convert that confidence into a race victory.

“I'm more and more confident with the F2007: we found a good setup, what you could already see in the race at Indianapolis. Now we have to transfer what we've seen at Silverstone to the next two Grand Prixs."

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