The 2006 French Grand Prix will certainly not go down as a classic, but for
Michael Schumacher and
Ferrari, their fourth win of the season marked another important step in their bid to close the gap to
Fernando Alonso and
Renault in the drivers' and manufacturers' championships.
Schumacher looked dominant throughout the race at Magny-Cours on Sunday, leading from start to finish and never looking likely to be overhauled.
Early on, the German put in a string of fastest laps to pull out an advantage on Alonso, who was stuck behind the second Ferrari of
Felipe Massa. Schumacher had built up a 30-odd second lead with around 20 laps to go and, as such, could ease off as the race entered its twilight.
He eventually finished around ten seconds up on Alonso, to take his eighth win at the French Grand Prix, the first time a driver has ever managed to win a single event so many times in the history of the
FIA Formula One World Championship. He also nibbled another two points off Alonso' advantage in the drivers' championship - reducing the margin from 19 points to 17 points.
It was the manner in which he took the victory though that will have Alonso concerned, as Fernando never looked in the slightest as if he could take the win himself. Furthermore, while a clever strategic decision to switch to a two-stopper allowed him to take the runners-up spot, all-in-all it was another less than convincing performance from him and the
regie who, only two races ago, looked to have the championship pretty much sewn up.
Massa took the final spot-on the podium, a somewhat bitter-sweet result for the Brazilian who, until the final third, looked almost certain to take second. Massa held P2 off the line at the start and then did a brilliant job of protecting Schumacher, who drove off into the distance from pole. However, his three-stop strategy dropped him behind Alonso, and he eventually ended up more than twelve seconds adrift of the reigning champ at the finish - and 22.5 seconds off his team-mate.
