Magny-Cours, 16th July 2006

Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa finished a dominant first and third in Sunday's 70 lap French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours to reduce Renault's lead in the World Championship for Constructors by five points, and Fernando Alonso's lead in the Drivers' series by another two points.

On a hot day, in front of a capacity crowd, Michael and Massa started on the front row of the grid, but while Michael made a superb start and went straight into the lead, Massa was challenged by Alonso at both the first corner and at the end of the straight, but he put up a robust defence and ended the first lap in second place, 1.7s behind Michael.

Behind Alonso, the Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher were fourth and fifth followed by Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren and then Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Renault. Completing the top eight was Mark Webber, up two places at the expense of Pedro de la Rosa for McLaren and David Coulthard's Red Bull Racing.



In the opening stages, Michael gradually drew away from Massa who continued to hold back Alonso. The pair drew away from the Toyotas, with Trulli slowly pulling away from Ralf, who was gradually being caught by Raikkonen. Fisichella wasn't far behind, while Webber was being pushed hard by de la Rosa.

Massa was the first to pit on lap 16, with Alonso and Raikkonen coming in a lap later, then Michael, Fisichella and de la Rosa pitting on lap 18. Webber came in on the next lap, while Trulli waited until lap 20 and Ralf came in on lap 22, but there was a problem with the left rear tyre and it took ten seconds longer than it should have.

The result was that Michael's lead was still at about six seconds, but Massa's lead over Alonso had gone up to five seconds. Similarly, Alonso's lead over Trulli had gone up by the same amount. Ralf's problems meant that he had slipped behind Raikkonen and Fisichella. Trulli also now found himself in trouble, losing engine power and his brakes. He was overtaken by Raikkonen for fourth place on lap 27 and would eventually retire on lap 39.

The leaders began to make their second pit stops on lap 32 with Raikkonen coming in first from fourth place, Massa pitting on lap 34 and then Michael on lap 38. Alonso, however, had switched to a two stop strategy and stayed out until lap 42, with teammate Fisichella coming in on lap 45. Ralf pitted on the next lap.

Once again, the Ferraris led, now separated by 19s on lap 50, but they still had another stop to make, whereas Alonso, ten seconds behind Massa, would not stop again. Massa made his final stop on lap 53 and emerged 7.3s behind Alonso in third place. Michael made his final stop on lap 55 and emerged 18s ahead of Alonso.

That lead had shrunk to 10s at the chequered flag, but that didn't matter: Michael had won and taken another two points from Alonso who was second. Massa was happy to be third, while Ralf was a fine fourth place, gaining on Massa in the closing stages. Raikkonen felt that he might have finished one place higher but for losing seconds in his second pit stop, but was otherwise not quick enough.

Fisichella finished sixth, suffering from tyre graining and poor brakes, ahead of de la Rosa in seventh, frustrated that he hadn't overtaken Webber earlier although he stopped on the slowing down lap. Nick Heidfeld finished in eighth place and salvaged the final championship point. David Coulthard was the first driver out of the points in ninth place.