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Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen takes his second consecutive Grand Prix victory by beating the two McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, who finished second and third respectively.

The Finn’s latest victory at Silverstone means he is now just 18 points behind the world championship leader Lewis Hamilton, as we go into the second half of this exciting Formula One season.

Lewis Hamilton, the star of the qualifying session with his sensational pole position, could only finish in third. He seemed to be struggling with the balance in his MP4-22 and was disappointed not to take the race win in front of thousands of his home fans. Still, he should be satisfied that his finishing record of nine podiums in nine races is truly remarkable. He still leads the title race by 12 points ahead of McLaren team-mate Alonso.

The Spaniard started the race in third and despite leading the middle stint of the 59-lap race, the double world champion had to settle for second behind the race-winning Ferrari of Raikkonen.

How did the Iceman get in front of the McLarens? Kimi revealed that it was all down to running a longer middle stint and setting those crucial fast laps to jump ahead of the silver cars.

“We had a good car all day, all weekend actually, in the race I just tried to save some fuel and look after the tyres on my car and once Lewis pitted I tried to push and gained some time on him,” Raikkonen said.

“Then Fernando did a very short stop, so we knew that we were going to run longer in the second stop [stint], so we just tried to push as hard as he can and obviously he came in and it was enough. After that it was pretty easy.”

The Finn’s back-to-back victories means he is now a likely candidate to challenge Hamilton for the championship title and Kimi admits that he is becoming more confident in the F2007 as the season goes on.

“It is going to be a long season still,” he said. “We seem to have a good speed right now, I think it depends also on the circuit conditions and the [different] places where we go, but I am really happy now with the car.

“All weekend it has been good and yesterday I just had a mistake, which made our life a lot more difficult than it should have been in the race, but we came out with a win and that’s the main thing.”

Indeed, the Ferraris were the fastest cars at Silverstone and this victory for Kimi Raikkonen means the 2007 world championship will be a fascinating contest between four of the quickest drivers in the sport.

Finishing in fourth was Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber, who drove a great race despite a late challenge from Felipe Massa, who stalled his Ferrari on the starting grid. The Brazilian was puzzled why his engine cut out on the parade lap and was forced to start the race in the pits. Running a lighter fuel load and using the grippy ‘white stripes’ Bridgestone, Massa was flying in the early stages of the British Grand Prix. He managed to pass several cars and to finish in fifth was an impressive recovery drive. But if Felipe didn’t have that problem, he could have been a contender for the race win…

Nick Heidfeld finished in sixth, thanks to running a longer stint after originally qualifying in ninth. The German was the last remaining driver to be on the lead lap. Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen managed to pass his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella in the final pit stop for seventh position.

As for the other British drivers racing in their home race, Jenson Button managed to use a one-stop strategy to his benefit with P10. Red Bull Racing’s David Coulthard was a place behind, but poor old Anthony Davidson. After going off in qualifying to warm up his Bridgestones, the Super Aguri driver was forced to retire after ‘extreme’ handling problems that could not be solved.

It may not have been a classic race after a thrilling qualifying, but you can never discount Ferrari and the Italian team seem to have the advantage as we reach the season’s midpoint.

Hamilton still leads the standings with 70 points from Alonso on 58, Raikkonen now up to 52 thanks to his two recent wins, with team-mate Massa on 51. In the constructors’ championship, McLaren still leads the way but by 25 points over Ferrari.

British Grand Prix result after 59 laps

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1hm21m43.074s
2. ALONSO McLaren +2.4s
3. HAMILTON McLaren +39.3s
4. KUBICA BMW +53.3s
5. MASSA Ferrari +54.0s
6. HEIDFELD BMW +56.3s
7. KOVALAINEN Renault +1 lap
8. FISICHELLA Renault +1 lap
9. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
10. BUTTON Honda +1 lap
11. COULTHARD Red Bull +1 lap
12. ROSBERG Williams +1 lap
13. WURZ Williams +1 lap
14. SATO Super Aguri +2 laps
15. ALBERS Spyker +2 laps
R. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +6 laps
R. TRULLI Toyota +16 laps
R. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +24 laps
R. SPEED Toro Rosso +30 laps
R. SCHUMACHER Toyota +37 laps
R SUTIL Spyker +43 laps
R. WEBBER Red Bull +51 laps

Fastest lap: RAIKKONEN 1m20.638s

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton will start his home race on pole position after beating Kimi Raikkonen in the final moments during an exciting hour of qualifying at the British Grand Prix.

Initially, Hamilton’s team-mate Fernando Alonso set the quickest lap around the former RAF airfield with a time of one minute, 20.147 seconds. The Spaniard set the benchmark with the harder Bridgestone tyres.

Then French Grand Prix winner Raikkonen came speeding out of Luffield, only to run wide at Woodcote… This little mistake costs the Finn the forward momentum in his Ferrari, but his efforts was still good enough to beat Alonso’s time with one minute, 20.099 seconds. At least the Iceman was ahead of his team-mate, Felipe Massa, who lines up in fourth with one minute, 20.265 seconds.

It all looked over, but Lewis was only halfway around his final qualifying lap and in the second split, was even quicker than Kimi! As the 22-year-old crossed the start/finish line in front of tens of hundreds of his home crowd, the world championship leader pulled a remarkable save with a sensational pole position.

His time of one minute, 19.997 seconds means Lewis has an advantage going into first-ever British Grand Prix. Behind the tense Ferrari versus McLaren battle came the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica with a surprising Ralf Schumacher in the Toyota (fifth and sixth respectively).

Lining up on the fourth row are the Renault drivers, with Heikki Kovalainen out-qualifying his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella by five hundredths of a second.

And rounding up the top ten is BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld, and Schumacher’s team-mate Jarno Trulli.

What about the other British drivers – how did David Coulthard, Jenson Button and Anthony Davidson fared in today’s qualifying session?

Well, DC was happy enough to sign a new contract with Red Bull Racing for 2008 and the popular Scot will line up in twelve, one place behind his team-mate Mark Webber.

As for Jenson Button, he had a disastrous qualifying session for his home Grand Prix. Jenson only managed 18th on the grid after encountering traffic and yellow flags. In fact this was caused by his Honda B-team colleague Anthony Davidson, who strangely lost control of his Super Aguri between Brooklands and Luffield and ending up in the gravel…

Right, the stage is set for an exciting British Grand Prix of recent times. Any of the top four drivers has a strong chance of victory, but all of the crowd’s expectation resting firmly on Hamilton’s young shoulders. Every time that he has started from pole this year, he has won. So the signs are looking positive and providing he doesn’t make any mistakes during a frantic 60-lap Grand Prix, Lewis could extend his lead in the drivers’ standings and edge closer to winning that ultimate prize, the 2007 title.

Starting grid for the 2007 British Grand Prix:

1. HAMILTON McLaren 1:19.997
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:20.099
3. ALONSO McLaren 1:20.147
4. MASSA Ferrari 1:20.265
5. KUBICA BMW 1:20.401
6. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1:20.516
7. KOVALAINEN Renault 1:20.721
8. FISICHELLA Renault 1:20.775
9. HEIDFELD BMW 1:20.894
10. TRULLI Toyota 1:21.240
11. WEBBER Red Bull 1:20.235
12. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:20.329
13. WURZ Williams 1:20.350
14. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:20.364
15. SPEED Toro Rosso 1:20.515
16. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1:20.823
17. ROSBERG Williams 1:21.219
18. BUTTON Honda 1:21.335
19. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:21.448
20. SUTIL Spyker 1:22.019
21. SATO Super Aguri 1:22.045
22. ALBERS Spyker 1:22.589

Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen rediscovers his winning form by taking an all-important race victory in Magny-Cours. Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa finished close behind in second with the world championship leader Lewis Hamilton in third.

It was a dominant race from the two scarlet cars, after the recent set back in the last three Grand Prix events. This race victory was crucial for Kimi as many critics in the Formula One paddock were questioning his ability as a racing driver – he is widely known as the quickest driver in the sport and many were predicting that he would be the strongest candidate to win the world championship. But after the first few races, the ‘Iceman’ has been under-performing especially when team-mate Massa was achieving the better results in qualifying and in the races.

This latest achievement, his eleventh career Grand Prix win, means Kimi remains a championship contender despite a shaking start to the 2007 season (the Finn took his first victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, but after that struggle to match his team-mate let alone the McLaren pair of Hamilton and Alonso).

It was a classic performance from the Iceman as you would expect from him, but it was quite unlucky race for his Ferrari team-mate Massa. The Brazilian led from pole position and was in command throughout the French Grand Prix, only to lose out in traffic.

As for Lewis Hamilton, he was left to settle for a distant third. Despite that, he maintains his impressive finishing record with another podium place and actually extends his championship lead over Fernando Alonso by 14 points.

Ah, yes Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard had a difficult race no thanks to a problem with his gearbox during qualifying. The team repaired his MP4-22 and decided to switch Alonso to a three-stop strategy, in the hope of scoring points. He even started the race on the ‘white stripes’ Bridgestones to give optimum grip in a way of gaining places in the opening laps.

Unfortunately, this plan backed-fired as he was stuck behind ‘Quick Nick’ in the BMW Sauber for a number of laps. The duel between Nick Heidfeld and Alonso was the main highlight of the 2007 French Grand Prix as the two drove quite fiercely for track position.

It was very exciting to see the double world champion trying to overtake the BMW Sauber and on one occasion, he got by only to run wide and lost the place again.

Alonso eventually got by with a spectacular overtaking move into the fast Imola chicane. The McLaren had the better momentum on the BMW out of the 180-degree hairpin and determined to get ahead, claimed the inside line into the sweeping fast bend. Heidfeld backed off and had to drive across the kerbs to give space.

But in end, Fernando still finished behind Nick due to the disappointing race pace in the McLaren and his compromised race strategy.

Finishing in fourth was Robert Kubica, who drove a solid race after missing out at Indianapolis due to his sizable accident in Montreal. To finish behind the leaders was a great result for the Polish driver.

Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella came home in sixth, despite being overtaken by his old team-mate Alonso in the race. This race result will be quite pleasing for Renault, as the past champions attempt to rediscover their winning form.

And finishing in the last remaining championship point was Jenson Button in the Honda. Finally, after a couple of difficult months, Jenson and his Japanese team have achieved a top eight result. Hopefully, the improvements to the ‘Earth’ car means this won’t be a one-off so expect a better performance in the next few races.

The next stop in this season’s Formula One World Championship is the British Grand Prix. The title fight between Ferrari and McLaren will be even more fierce and judging by the Italian team’s Silverstone test and this 1-2 result in France, Hamilton heads to Silverstone with a slightly less bright prospects of becoming the first rookie to win his home race.

French Grand Prix, Magny-Cours – 70 laps

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1hr. 30mins. 54.200secs.
2. MASSA Ferrari +2.4s
3. HAMILTON McLaren +29.7s
4. KUBICA BMW +41.7s
5. HEIDFELD BMW +48.8s
6. FISICHELLA Renault +52.2s
7. ALONSO McLaren +56.5s
8. BUTTON Honda +58.8s
9. ROSBERG Williams +1m08.5s
10. SCHUMACHER Toyota +1 lap
11. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
12. WEBBER Red Bull +1 lap
13. COULTHARD Red Bull +1 lap
14. WURZ Williams +1 lap
15. KOVALAINEN Renault +1 lap
16. SATO Super Aguri +2 laps
17. SUTIL Spyker +2 laps
R. SPEED Toro Rosso +15 laps
R. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +42 laps
R. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +69 laps
R. TRULLI Toyota +69 laps
R. ALBERS Spyker +70 laps

Fastest lap: MASSA 1min. 16.099secs

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa will start the final Magny-Cours race, scene of this year’s French Grand Prix, ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

The Brazilian set a best lap time of one minute, 15.034 seconds beating the championship leader by less than a tenth of second. This was Massa’s fourth pole position this season and its first front row start for Ferrari since May.

Raikkonen lines up behind the leading pair giving a Ferrari 1-3 on the grid. This demonstrations that the Italian team are not out of the contention in the championship battle with rival McLaren, despite under-performing in the previous three races. A strong result in Sunday’s race will be a great reward for Jean Todt and his squad.

As for the double world champion Fernando Alonso, the McLaren star hit trouble with a suspected gearbox problem. The Spaniard didn’t even set a lap time in the all-important top ten shootout in session three and provisionally, will start in the race in tenth position (if the team decides to replace the Mercedes-Benz engine, he will drop another ten places due to the Formula One regulations).

This is bad news for Fernando, as he is desperate to claw back the ten-point gap over his team-mate and leader of the drivers’ standings Hamilton. It will be a very difficult 70 laps for Alonso to recover from.

Making his return back in the BMW-Sauber cockpit is Robert Kubica. The Polish driver missed out on taking part in the previous race at Indianapolis due to doctors’ orders after his horrifying crash at the Canadian Grand Prix. Now that Robert is back behind the wheel, he qualified in an impressive fourth – three places ahead of team-mate Nick Heidfeld.

Between the BMW drivers are the two Renaults with Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen – fifth and sixth respectively. This is the team’s best qualifying effort so far this season.

Toyota’s Jarno Trulli qualified in eighth with Nico Roberg in ninth for Williams. The German produced another solid display in qualifying and will line up on row five alongside the unfortunate Alonso.

As for Takuma Sato in the Super Aguri, the Japanese takes a ten-place grid penalty for overtaking Honda’s Jenson Button under waved yellow flags in the last race.

Yet again, the number two drivers at Ferrari and McLaren have upstaged their leading colleague. But in the case for Fernando, the McLaren-Mercedes MP4-22 let him down… Can Felipe go for the win to end Ferrari’s winless period after three disappointing races or can Lewis score that hat-trick of race victories before he arrives as a hero in his home race at Silverstone? The final French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours could be a thriller!

Starting grid for the French Grand Prix

1. MASSA Ferrari 1:15.034
2. HAMILTON McLaren 1:15.104
3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:15.257
4. KUBICA BMW 1:15.493
5. FISICHELLA Renault 1:15.674
6. KOVALAINEN Renault 1:15.826
7. HEIDFELD BMW 1:15.900
8. TRULLI Toyota 1:15.935
9. ROSBERG Williams 1:16.328
10. ALONSO McLaren 1:15.084
11. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1:15.534
12. BUTTON Honda 1:15.584
13. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:15.761
14. WEBBER Red Bull 1:15.806
15. SPEED Toro Rosso 1:16.049
16. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:15.915
17. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1:16.142
18. WURZ Williams 1:16.241
19. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:16.366
20. ALBERS Spyker 1:17.826
21. SUTIL Spyker 1:17.915
22. SATO Super Aguri* 1:16.244

* Penalty imposed after United States Grand Prix

Juan Pablo Montoya has finally achieved his dream result by winning a NASCAR Nextel Cup race last Sunday.

The ex-Formula One driver – who last competed in the United States Grand Prix for McLaren back in 2006 – described the maiden victory as one of the greatest moments of his racing career.

The Colombian has had a difficult start in stock car racing with his first ever race ending in a fireball! Since then, Montoya has been slowly learning the race craft in driving on ovals and has impressed the American public with his speed despite so-so results.

But this latest performance at Sears Point – the first of only two road course events on the Nextel Cup schedule – Montoya used his road racing experience to move up from a disappointing 32nd on the 43-car grid all the way to the front.

“I can’t even believe,” Montoya said. “It’s been an amazing day for the whole team. We had a fast car, just looked after it all day long, the strategy worked good, great pitstops and just had everything fall into place, you know. One of those days when you’re meant to win you’re going to win, whatever happens.”

“It’s huge,” when asked to compare his win with his other race victories as a professional racing driver. “I would say right now it’s the biggest thing I’ve done.”

“In open-wheel racing, I was expected to win. In stock cars, I wasn’t. This is as big as any victory. You could say it’s as big as winning the Indy 500 or winning Long Beach. For me winning Long Beach [Champ Car race, in 1999] was probably cooler than winning the Indy 500 because it was my first ever-big race. Winning here is my first-ever big race in stock cars. They’re all right up there. I kinda think this is my favourite. It’s amazing.”

The Colombian pulled off some bold overtaking moves on the California track, but the key to his victory was knowing when to save fuel during the final sting of the race.

“They told me it was going to be close,” Montoya added. “I mean, you always drive very careful with the throttle, letting the car roll and I thought ‘I’m going to be good, it’s going to close.’ I’m thinking ‘I don’t want to get to the end and get second’, you know. So I drove a bit harder, went by Jamie (Johnson) and then started saving a bit more fuel.”

Team boss Chip Ganassi, whose outfit Montoya won the 1999 Champ Car title and the Indianapolis 500 in 2000, said patience has become part of the feisty repertoire for JPM.

“Those of you who didn’t know him before, he’s changed quite a bit,” Ganassi said. “He’s a lot calmer, if you can imagine that. He actually came on the radio today and said ‘it’s too early to race these guys’.

“I was looking around thinking I had somebody else’s radio or something. He’s a changed man, all in a positive way.”

Montoya’s victory was the first for a Hispanic driver in Nextel Cup history and as such was a landmark for NASCAR, as the series hopes to expanse by tapping into new markets including Europe.

“I think in a way it’s going to be good for the whole NASCAR sport,” JPM said.” I think me winning today is going to bring a lot of attention the next few races.”