With the 2008 season rapidly approaching the halfway mark, Felipe Massa left France with the lead of the drivers' championship. On recent form, no one can claim that he might not go all the way. He may have benefitted from team mate Kimi Raikkonen's technical woes, but even with a sick car, Ferrari's one-two was absolutely emphatic. And as McLaren and BMW Sauber slipped down the order, it was Toyota who were partying hardest in the Magny-Cours paddock on Sunday evening.

Ferrari
Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen

Having taken pole, Raikkonen seemed to be an easy winner as he maintained a small but crucial margin over Massa. But then came his exhaust problem around the 33rd lap, which eventually cost him the lead and dropped him to a philosophical second place. On the one hand he was unlucky, on the other he was fortunate to make it to the finish as the engine was threatening to shut down in the final laps. Massa, who had qualified superbly with a heavier fuel load, was perfectly poised to take over as the wheel of fortune spun his way. As is so often the case, Ferrari were once again in a class of their own, and the constructors' points table more than points out that fact.

Toyota
Jarno Trulli, Timo Glock

Third place was a great finish for Toyota, as Trulli scored the marque's first podium since Australia 2006. After a hard, pushy race which saw him hanging pretty tough on the penultimate lap, Trulli resisted Kovalainen's challenge. Trulli claimed that the fight was similar to Kart racning. His six points moved Toyota further ahead of Williams. Glock seemed on for a good race when he ran sixth initially, but graining on his second set of Bridgestones created horrible understeer that dropped him down the order.

McLaren
Heikki Kovalainen, Lewis Hamilton

Once again, the Brit, Hamilton, went home without any points. This time though, it was almost certainly because the race stewards judged his passing move on Vettel, on the opening lap, as worthy of a drive-through penalty. Hamilton and McLaren disagreed, but they had no option but to serve the term and once he had been through the pit lane, all chances of points had gone and he had to be content with a 10th place finish. The fastest lap times revealed that Ferrari had the upper hand in any case. Kovalainen was happy with a strategy that enabled him to move up from his penalised 10th place on the grid to fourth by the end of the race. Encouragingly though for the team, he said that his MP4-23 felt 'fantastic' throughout the race.

BMW Sauber
Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeld

This was a disappointing race for BMW Sauber after the high from the win in Canada. Kubica passed Alonso brilliantly on the outside of Turn One, but was repassed in the hairpin when he got bottled up behind Trulli who was carrying more fuel. His F1.08 lacked poise, but he took heart that his fifth place was only two seconds shy of the podium. Heidfeld had a terrible race, bemoaning his car's balance on his way to 13th place.

Red Bull
Mark Webber, David Coulthard

Both the Red Bull drivers lost track positions at the start of the race when their RB4s were slow getting off the line. Webber pushed hard to stay with Alonso early on and survived a near spin in the final corner when he banged the car over the kerbs too hard on new tyres and with a full load of fuel. He benefited when Renault's strategy came up short. Three points for sixth place were extremely valuable. Coulthard was left to rue balance problems on the Bridgestones and couldn't make up for his fantastic qualifying run.

Renault
Nelson Piquet, Fernando Alonso

Renault's qualifying ploy was exposed when Alonso was the first to refuel after only 15 laps. But he had failed to capitalise on the lightweight of his car and had fallen behind Trulli. Later he ran wide while lapping Fisichella, and surrendered seventh place to team mate Piquet. The latter had his best race yet in Formula One, fending off Hamilton early on despite running a heavier fuel load, chased down Alonso, and grabbed his first two points with a graceful move at the hairpin.

Toro Rosso
Sebastian Vettel, Sebastien Bourdais

Vettel was always in the middle of the midfield pack but struggled with some serious tyre graining, which he said had made his life harder. Bourdais lost ground to Nakajima at the start, and thereafter got stuck behind the Williams driver. Later he lost further time when, despite pulling away from the troubled Raikkonen, he still had to obey waved blue flags and let him by.

Honda
Rubens Barrichello, Jenson Button

Barrichello thought he had a great race in a difficult car, but agreed that there was no escaping the fact that it was another painful weekend for Honda. Things were worse for Button, who collided with Bourdais on the opening lap. Yet again he sustained damage that would eventually render him the race's sole retirement.

Williams
Kazuki Nakajima, Nico Rosberg

Williams had a terrible race after their car saw them struggling for lack of grip. They will look forward to Silverstone with hope for a better performance.

Force India
Giancarlo Fisichella, Adrian Sutil

Both drivers had opted for aggressive strategies but that didn't really play out well for them. The minimal retirement rate left them trailing the field.