Formula One news

Ferrari celebrates continued dominance

Fourth win of the season for Ferrari. 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.

"This is a great result," said team boss Jean Todt. "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."

Michael Schumacher commented, "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 added, "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."

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