In North America, it appeared as if the Scuderia was on the back-foot, but that was definitely not how things were in France. In fact, it was almost a complete reversal.
Kimi Raikkonen really seemed to be back on form – and, boy, did he need that win. The ‘ice-man’ really seemed to gel with the F2007 last weekend and that could prove to be bad news for
McLaren – and, of course, those hoping that Lewis will win his home race first time out.
Felipe Massa was also impressive in the sister
Ferrari and only lost out to Kimi due to a combination of the fact the Finn was superior on his out-laps and because, at least according to Massa, back-markers cost him time.
Don’t underestimate Felipe though, because he has shown already this year that he is very much a contender - and it is great to see Ferrari allowing there two drivers’ to fight. We didn’t see much of that when
Michael Schumacher was around, did we?
All in all though, Ferrari definitely seems to found something and although the margin to McLaren may not be as big as it seemed - as the strategy Ron Dennis’ squad adopted wasn’t especially successful - there is no doubt the
tifosi will be a lot happier.
Further down the field, I was impressed again by BMW Sauber - and
Robert Kubica definitely made Lewis work for that final spot on the podium.
As I predicted last time, Kubica wasn’t affected at all by his monster crash in Canada, and for the Pole to lead home a four-five finish for
BMW, ahead of team-mate
Nick Heidfeld, showed just that.
BMW continues to make progress and get good points and, if McLaren or Ferrari slips up, will be there to punish them.
That’s just what happened to Alonso in France as, after gearbox problems in Q3 left him tenth on the grid, he struggled to make any headway in the race. While he did make some - and entertained us all with that great fight with Heidfeld - in the end he had to settle for seventh and two points, which will be far less than he will have wanted.
