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Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher won his eighth French Grand Prix (an impressive race statistic) after a dominate lights-to-flag victory over Fernando Alonso. Felipe Massa finished in third position.

Schumacher’s victory has significantly reduced the points gap to championship leader Alonso to 17 points. And with seven races to go, this will mean that we will have a tense and exciting duel for the title.

In the early part of the race, Ferrari were running one-two with Michael ahead of team-mate Massa. But Renault changed their pit-stop strategy (from three pitstops to two), which allow Alonso to jump ahead of the Brazilian and gained that all-important extra points with P2.

Bridgestone was the fastest tyre package in Michelin’s home race, judging by the pace of the Ferraris and the Toyotas. But the Williams team did suffer a tyre problem especially for Mark Webber, who had to retire with a left-rear running over temperature…

Ralf Schumacher finished in a good solid fourth in the Toyota with McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen in fifth. Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella drove a low-key race and finished a distant sixth, ahead of Pedro de la Rosa in the McLaren. The last point scorer was Nick Heidfeld in the BMW-Sauber.

As for Honda, it was a weekend from hell. Terrible qualifying performance from Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello and then in the race, a lack of race pace which ended in retirement for both drivers…

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya has announced that he is leaving Formula One to join NASCAR racing in America.

The McLaren driver will reunite with Chip Ganassi Racing, with whom he achieved spectacular success when racing in the United States, winning the 1999 Champ Car (CART) title and the 2000 Indianapolis 500.

The shock news was announced by Montoya and Ganassi in a press conference at the Chicagoland NASCAR event on Sunday morning (July 9th).

Montoya’s future has been one of the key talking points of the feverish F1 ‘silly season’.

McLaren had not taken up its option to retain him for 2007 and after a disappointing 2006 campaign to date his place in the Woking team was in jeopardy – especially with a list of other candidates in the frame for the high demanded seat alongside new arrival Fernando Alonso (the current championship leader).

With Toyota expected to re-sign Jarno Trulli for another three years and Red Bull Racing’s interest apparently on the wane, Montoya’s options to remain in Formula One were looking limited.

Ganassi recently expressed an interest in renewing his association with Montoya but it was assumed any overtures would be in connection with his IRL IndyCar squad.

Instead the Colombian will take on a completely new challenge after signing what was described as a “multi-year” deal.

He will become the first big-name F1 regular to compete in NASCAR full-time in the 58-year history of the stock car category.

Apparently Jacques Villeneuve was thinking on the same wave length and joining NASCAR at the end of his F1 career. Even though the Canadian is achieving solid results in the BMW Sauber this season, the team hasn’t made a decision whether he will drive for them in 2007. If Villeneuve leaves, then we have lost another great driver from the ‘pinnacle of motor racing.’

As for Montoya, I think he made the right choice as he seems to be disillusioned by the politics in Grand Prix racing. Plus, since he join McLaren from Williams back in 2005, Montoya has been out-performed by Kimi Raikkonen. It doesn’t help that he had that ‘tennis/motocross’ injury last year…

I will miss Montoya in Formula One as he was an exciting driver to watch. Brave and committed. His passing move on Michael Schumacher at Brazil in only his third race in 2001 was fantastic. And that amazing 160mph+ qualifying lap around Monza in 2002 was simply incredible.

Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher won a dramatic United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis, closing the championship gap to Fernano Alonso by six points. Schumacher was delighted to win his fifth consecutive US Grand Prix after taking his first win since the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

As for Alonso, the Spaniard had a troubled race. Struggling with oversteer (in qualifying, he was suffering understeer) and could only finish in fifth position. A disappointing result for the current championship leader after winning the last four races.

At the start, on the first corner, there was a big incident that took out half of the Formula One field! It seems that Juan Pablo Montoya caused the shunt, by running into the back of his McLaren team-mate Kimi Raikkonen… Both McLarens spun, hitting Jenson Button (Honda) and clipping both Nick Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber) and Scott Speed (Toro Rosso). Heidfeld’s BMW flew into a series of rolls, but luckily the German was unhurt. Further back, a separate accident at the apex of the first turn eliminated Christian Klien (Red Bull Racing), Mark Webber (Williams) and Franck Montagny (Super Aguri).

Such a shame that both McLarens and Scott Speed were out before the race even started. Well, that’s motor racing for you and hopefully a better race for them in the next Grand Prix.

A perfect one-two finish for Ferrari with Felipe Massa scoring his best ever finish with second. He made a great start to lead the first 29 laps, before the first round of pitstops. Schumacher stopped on lap 28 (a lap sooner than his team-mate) but grabbed the lead with a supreme out lap. And that was the end of the lead contest.

Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella finished in a distant third ahead of Jarno Trulli in the Toyota. Giancarlo just didn’t have the speed to challenge for the win. But at least he had a better handling Renault R26 over team-mate Alonso…

A fantastic achievement by Trulli, despite starting from the pitlane after suffering a rear suspension failure during qualifying. The Italian stayed out of trouble on the first lap and drove a solid race for yet another finish. Good job!

Rubens Barrichello had a lonely race to sixth in the Honda. The Brazilian was actually catching Alonso near the end of the race… David Coulthard scored another points finish with seventh in the Red Bull, with Vitantonio Liuzzi in P8 for Toro Rosso.

Renault had admitted that third and fifth places was the “maximum” it could have hoped for. As has been the case all weekend, the Michelin-shod R26 – so dominant a week ago in Canada – was unable to match the combination of Bridgestone tyres on the Ferrari chassis.

Giancarlo Fisichella came closest to offering a challenge, finishing in a strong third place to reclaim third in the drivers’ standings from McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Meanwhile, McLaren boss Ron Dennis refused to blame anyone for the first corner accident that took both his cars out of the United States Grand Prix. Juan Pablo Montoya ran into the back of Kimi Raikkonen as the pack jostled through the opening turns. Both McLarens spun and collected the cars around them – taking Jenson Button out of the race and sending Nick Heidfeld rolling through the gravel. The race stewards are planning to hold an investigation after the race, and Montoya seems the driver most likely to receive any censure.

My opinion is this was a motor racing incident and these things can happen. A pack of 22 cars racing towards a tight and narrow right corner always bound to cause trouble. Such a shame that so many cars were taken out before the race began.