Italians Rule Magny Cours

With Ferrari 1-2 and surprise podium finisher Jarno Trulli, it was a wonderful day for Italian fans at French GP. See the results

Kimi Räikkönen managed to secure 200th pole for Ferrari on an uneventful Saturday. He was leading the race comfortably until his F2008 lost an exhaust manifold midrace. The hot exhaust from engine burned some part of the engine cover. The situation looked dangerous, but Ferrari crew looked unworried. ( I practiced some hardcore cursing when Star Sports took a commercial break just as Kimi entered pits with a blown exhaust ) But this was Kimi’s 1st race on this engine so he has to use the same one at Silverstone two weeks later. Ultimately Kimi had to give up his position to speeding Massa, as he was losing tremendous power.

The ‘Uselessness’ of some of the FIA rules was proven here also as Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for ‘Overtaking outside racing line’. Isn’t it FIA’s job to make sure that driver loses time if he drives off racing line? Starting 13th after a 10 stop penalty because of pit lane incident in Canada, Hamilton struggled very hard to finish 10th.

According to me, Trulli was the most impressive driver. He held back a clearly faster Hekki Kovalainen for more than 20 laps. It was a classic example of Experience vs Speed. He ‘truly’ deserved his place on the podium.

BMWs lacked pace and did not look like a team that finished 1-2 in Canada. Both the Force-India cars finished the race, for a change. Nelson Piquet Jr. overtook Alonso on a very last lap to finish 7th and opened his championship points account.

Massa leads Driver’s championship by 2 points from Kubica. The championship is wide open!