page_title: 2008 French Grand Prix
section_title: Post-race
hierarchical_section_title: 2008 French Grand Prix / Race / Post-race
caption_attribution_description: Heikki Kovalainen driving for McLaren at the 2008 French Grand Prix.
context_page_description: The 2008 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 22 June 2008 at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, France. This race would be the last French Grand Prix for a decade, before returning in 2018 at Circuit Paul Ricard. It was the eighth race of the 2008 Formula One season. The 70-lap race was won by Felipe Massa for the Ferrari team after starting from second position. Kimi Räikkönen, who started from pole position, finished second in the other Ferrari car; Jarno Trulli was third in a Toyota.
  Räikkönen and Massa both made a clean start. Renault's Fernando Alonso, who started third, was overtaken by Trulli and BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica. The front three of Räikkönen, Massa and Trulli maintained their positions through the first round of pit stops. On lap 30, Räikkönen led Massa by six and a half seconds, and Trulli by 30 seconds. Just before half distance, Räikkönen's right exhaust pipe broke, which caused the engine to lose power. Massa, in second place, began lapping quicker than Räikkönen, and he caught and passed him on lap 39. Massa maintained his lead through the second round of pit stops, and won the race; Räikkönen finished almost 18 seconds behind.
context_section_description: Massa was delighted with his race victory, saying, "A great race, a fantastic result. The win came my way because Kimi had a problem with his car and at the pace he was running, it would have been hard for me to beat him on the track. I would have been happy with second place but of course, the win makes me even happier." After the race, Räikkönen said,
  Obviously I am a bit disappointed because I had hoped to win. Unfortunately, the right exhaust pipe broke just before half-distance and the engine lost a lot of power, especially on the straight after the slow corners. After a few laps, the situation seemed better, but towards the end of the race, I ran the risk of stopping. This sort of thing can happen in racing and I have to try and look on the bright side: eight points are still a good amount and the one-two finish is a great result for the team. Luckily, I had built up quite a good lead in the first part thanks to a car that was really very competitive.
  Trulli said, "Today was a great race, hard and tough. We had a good pace, even if we had to battle with some cars that were quicker than us. I had to fight really hard but that is what people should expect both from myself and from Toyota." Hamilton commented on his drive-through penalty: "My drive-through penalty was an extremely close call: I felt I'd got past Vettel fairly and was ahead going into the corner. But I was on the outside and couldn't turn-in in case we both crashed, then I lost the back-end and drove over the kerb."
  After BMW Sauber's victory at the previous race, their director, Mario Theissen, said that "over the entire weekend here our package did not work perfectly", while driver Heidfeld said that it was a "disappointing result". Alonso said that he felt disappointed after his poor start to the race. Red Bull's director, Christian Horner, said that their problems lay in the bad starts their drivers had made. Button, who retired during the race, commented on his collision: "I got a good start and was alongside Bourdais. I thought he was going to turn in at turn one and close the door so I pulled in behind him and then unfortunately hit him in the rear as everything slowed down for the corner. I could feel that there was something broken at the front of the car as there was an air coming in from the front, but the car was driveable and I was staying with the back of the pack so I continued. We replaced the nose but the bargeboards had been pulled off and the car had become undriveable so I had to retire." Piquet scored his first points in Formula One in the race, having failed to score up to that point. He said that he was happy, and hoped that the team could "continue like this for the rest of the season".
  After the race, Massa moved into the lead of the Drivers' Championship, on 48 points, taking the Championship lead for the first time in his Formula One career. Kubica lost the lead of the Drivers' Championship, falling two points behind Massa. Räikkönen moved ahead of Hamilton, on 43 points, while Hamilton was five points further behind. Heidfeld remained fifth. Before the race, Ferrari had been just three points ahead of BMW in the Constructors' Championship; after the race, Ferrari moved into a comfortable 17 point advantage. McLaren made up one point on BMW, although they were still 16 points behind.
caption: Heikki Kovalainen took fourth for McLaren.
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