Today, another glorious era in F1, in all probability, came to an end:  The French Grand Prix.  After sustaining a lot of criticism about deteriorating track conditions to poor hospitality, the era of the French GP is finally over with today being the last race at Magny Cours.  Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari, after starting from pole and leading for the better part of the race was unfortunate to pick up mechanical trouble.  The exhaust pipe of his car broke up and superhot exhaust fumes from his F2008 were rapidly burning up a hole in the side of the car.  He suddenly lost his pace and Felipe closed in on him in no time and took over the race lead and went on to win the race.  Kimi, as only Kimi can,  managed to hold on to a second place while the last position on the podium went to the grossly underrated Jarno Trulli who displayed tremendous tenacity and guts which included a near wheel-banging incident with Heikki Kovalainen who despite being in a far faster McLaren, couldn’t make it past the wily Trulli.

About Lewis Hamilton, the lesser said the better.  Slapped with a ten position starting penalty,  his race was good as doomed as he had to start in P13 and not in P3 that was his by virtue of his qualifying run, but he showed good promise in the beginning, till he cut through the grass avoiding the apex while overtaking a backmarker.  Result? A stop-and-go penalty that well and truly killed his race, and so, for the second consecutive race,  he did not finish with any points.  In hindsight,  one can say that his mistake in the Canadian GP (where he crashed into Kimi Raikkonen’s stationary car in the pitlane) probably cost him as much as 16 points (10 in the Canadian GP which he was leading and 6 points, considering that he had qualified with P3 in the French GP).

The tournament standings and review of the championship contenders:-

<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="raceResults" summary=""><tbody><tr><th>Pos</th> <th>Driver</th> <th>Nationality</th> <th>Team</th> <th>Points</th> </tr> <tr> <td>1</td> <td> Felipe Massa</td> <td>Brazilian</td> <td> Ferrari</td> <td>48</td> </tr> <tr> <td>2</td> <td> Robert Kubica</td> <td>Polish</td> <td> BMW Sauber</td> <td>46</td> </tr> <tr> <td>3</td> <td> Kimi Räikkönen</td> <td>Finnish</td> <td> Ferrari</td> <td>43</td> </tr> <tr> <td>4</td> <td> Lewis Hamilton</td> <td>British</td> <td> McLaren-Mercedes</td> <td>38</td> </tr> <tr> <td>5</td> <td> Nick Heidfeld</td> <td>German</td> <td> BMW Sauber</td> <td>28</td> </tr> <tr> <td>6</td> <td> Heikki Kovalainen</td> <td>Finnish</td> <td> McLaren-Mercedes</td> <td>20</td> </tr> <tr> <td>7</td> <td> Jarno Trulli</td> <td>Italian</td> <td> Toyota</td> <td>18</td> </tr> <tr> <td>8</td> <td> Mark Webber</td> <td>Australian</td> <td> Red Bull-Renault</td> <td>18</td> </tr> <tr> <td>9</td> <td> Fernando Alonso</td> <td>Spanish</td> <td> Renault</td> <td>10</td> </tr> <tr> <td>10</td> <td> Nico Rosberg</td> <td>German</td> <td> Williams-Toyota</td> <td>8</td></tr></tbody></table>Table courtesy: Formula1.com

Felipe Massa: One of the two biggest gainers due to Kimi Raikkonen’s two consecutive zero-point finishes.
He made the best of Kimi’s absence in the score sheets with strong third and second place finishes at Monaco and Canada. Tournament leader.  Looking good for more.  This is Massa’s best opportunity ever so far in his career, to push for the Championship title.

Robert Kubica:  The fastest Pole in the world is the second biggest gainer from Kimi’s twin non-point finishes.  The tournament leader after the Canadian GP, he is now #2 after picking up 4 points at Magny Cours, with only two points separating him from #1, Felipe Massa.  Red hot contender for the title.  BMW looked off-color and off-pace at Magny Cours, but if they can get their act together,  there is no stopping this guy.

Kimi Raikkonen:  Towards the end of his mistake-ridden race at Monaco,  he made one mistake too many and crashed into the back of the unfortunate Adrian Sutil, ending the race effectively for both of them.  Tables were turned on him when he ended up as the victim as Lewis Hamilton barreled his McLaren into Kimi’s stationary car in the pitlane in Canada.  Two races, zero points.  He is now five points behind teammate and championship leader Felipe Massa and three points away from #2, Kubica.  This is a guy that can come back strong, and I suspect, he will.  Championship hopes are still looking bright.

Lewis Hamilton:  The biggest loser in the past two races.  Even Kimi sustained two races without points, but this guy seems to be the hardest hit by what happened.  With the points that he lost being picked up by just Massa and Kubica and not getting split more ways,  he is now a whole 10 points behind the race leader.  Technically, even if he wins the next race and Massa fails to complete in points (which is unlikely given Ferrari’s reliability this season),  he will only equal Massa and Kubica will regain the championship lead if he just manages to get 3 points (a sixth place finish).  He can take heart that more bizarre things have happened, like Kimi winning the championship last year, in the very last race, a championship that was decided not so much by his own skill but by the blunders of others, but living on such hopes alone is sheer stupidity.  Things are getting tougher for the hot-shot Briton.  A whole lot tougher.  He is unlikely to forget his terrible blunder in the Canadian GP in a long time. It might well cost him the world championship this year.