Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa finished a dominant first and third in Sunday's 70 lap French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours to reduce Renault's lead in the Formula One World Championship for Constructors by five points, and Fernando Alonso's lead in the Drivers' series by another two points.

On a hot day, in front of a capacity crowd, Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa started on the front row of the grid, but while Schumacher made a superb start and went straight into the lead, Massa was challenged by Alonso at both the first corner and at the end of the straight, but he put up a robust defence and ended the first lap in second place, 1.7s behind Michael.

Behind Alonso, the Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher were fourth and fifth followed by Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren and then Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Renault. Completing the top eight was Mark Webber, up two places at the expense of Pedro de la Rosa for McLaren and David Coulthard's Red Bull Racing. In the opening stages, Michael gradually drew away from Massa who continued to hold back Alonso. The pair drew away from the Toyotas, with Trulli slowly pulling away from Ralf, who was gradually being caught by Raikkonen. Fisichella wasn't far behind, while Webber was being pushed hard by de la Rosa.

Massa was the first to pit on lap 16, with Alonso and Raikkonen coming in a lap later, then Michael, Fisichella and de la Rosa pitting on lap 18. Webber came in on the next lap, while Trulli waited until lap 20 and Ralf came in on lap 22, but there was a problem with the left rear tyre and it took ten seconds longer than it should have. The result was that Michael's lead was still at about six seconds, but Massa's lead over Alonso had gone up to five seconds. Similarly, Alonso's lead over Trulli had gone up by the same amount. Ralf's problems meant that he had slipped behind Raikkonen and Fisichella. Trulli also now found himself in trouble, losing engine power and his brakes. He was overtaken by Raikkonen for fourth place on lap 27 and would eventually retire on lap 39.

The leaders began to make their second pit stops on lap 32 with Raikkonen coming in first from fourth place, Massa pitting on lap 34 and then Michael on lap 38. Alonso, however, had switched to a two stop strategy and stayed out until lap 42, with teammate Fisichella coming in on lap 45. Ralf pitted on the next lap. Once again, the Ferraris led, now separated by 19s on lap 50, but they still had another stop to make, whereas Alonso, ten seconds behind Massa, would not stop again. Massa made his final stop on lap 53 and emerged 7.3s behind Alonso in third place. Michael made his final stop on lap 55 and emerged 18s ahead of Alonso.

That lead had shrunk to ten seconds at the chequered flag, but that didn't matter: Schumacher had won and taken another two points from Alonso who was second. Massa was happy to be third, while Ralf was a fine fourth place, gaining on Massa in the closing stages. Raikkonen felt that he might have finished one place higher but for losing seconds in his second pit stop, but was otherwise not quick enough.
 

Fisichella finished sixth, suffering from tyre graining and poor brakes, ahead of de la Rosa in seventh, frustrated that he hadn't overtaken Webber earlier although he stopped on the slowing down lap. Nick Heidfeld finished in eighth place and salvaged the final championship point. David Coulthard was the first driver out of the points in ninth place.

It was the fourth win of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. This is the fifteenth French Grand Prix win for the Prancing Horse, number 187 from 734 races. For Michael Schumacher this is his eighty eighth win from 243 Grand Prix starts, the eighth at this circuit.

Jean Todt: "This is a great result, picking up first and third places with Michael and Felipe respectively. We knew this would be a very tough race in which tyre performance would be critical and that prediction turned out to be true. The team did an excellent job, the drivers drove very well, the cars proved reliable and the Bridgestone tyres were up to the task in hand. The combination of all these elements means that both championships are still up for grabs. There are seven races remaining this season and as we have always said, we will do all we can to meet our targets. This victory is particularly significant for me: even if I am a European, living in Italy, I am happy to celebrate my thirteen years with this brilliant Ferrari team with a win here in France. In Maranello, we have managed to put together a group of people with great qualities, supported by exceptional technical and commercial partners and it is nice to be here together with them to celebrate this success."

Michael Schumacher: "A fantastic result, even if in all honesty it was unexpected. We did not know how the race would pan out, especially as we had not been able to do many long runs over the previous days. For these ten points, I have to thank the great guys in the team and our exceptional technical partners, starting with Bridgestone. The whole package - car, engine, tyres - was excellent today. I got a good start and from then on I could run my own race. Now we have to keep this momentum going. The championship is far from over and these two points we have made up on our main rivals are very important. I hope we can soon make up more ground."

Felipe Massa: "I think this was a very good result for us, although of course I would have liked to keep second place. I was on a three stop strategy and Fernando was switched to a two stop race and that meant I was not able to fight with him on the track. I also had a lot of traffic in my second and third stints and this effectively spoilt our three stop strategy and cost me second place. But overall, sixteen points in the bag means we make up a bit of ground on our rivals in both championships. The 248 F1 and the Bridgestone tyres worked better than I expected, possibly because of the extra rubber which gradually got put down on the track."

Ross Brawn: "It's a really great result at the end of a weekend when the whole team did a great job. Right from the start of the weekend, we had opted for a rather aggressive tyre choice, which paid off from yesterday's qualifying. Then today we prepared and managed the tyres during the race. Actually, they were very good and on Michael's car, fantastic. We lost a bit of performance with Felipe from around half distance and we need to understand why. It was a shame, as his pace early on was very strong. Now we have to keep on moving forward, trying to improve race by race."

Michael Schumacher: 1st 1:32:07.803 70 laps chassis 254; Felipe Massa: 3rd + 22.546 70 laps chassis 252; Temperatures: air 34/35°C, track 47/50°C