Thread: As Kavalainen gets his first F1 win

Even if Ferrari and ferrari fans are not too happy with the results of the Hungarian round of the F1 chamionship, our consulting editor is. Finally his chauffeur has won an F1 race. Heikki Kovalainen had the privilege of chauf¬feuring him around for about three laps of the Paul Ricard circuit in the South of France a little over a year ago in a two-seater Renault F1 car. But seriously, Ferrari couldn't be too happy despite Kimi Raikkonen making it to the podium. The heartbreak story was that of Felipe Massa.

From third place on the grid, he went straight into a lead he never relinquished apart from during the two runs of pit stops, but then with only three laps to go to the chequered flag, a large puff of smoke from the back of his F saw him park alongside the pit wall to retire. The race was won by Heikki Kovalainen his maiden F1 victory. The result means Ferrari retains its lead in the Constructors' Championship, 11 points clear of McLaren-Mercedes which have now moved ahead of BMW-Sauber. Lewis Hamilton heads the Drivers' classification on 62 points; five points clear of Kimi with Felipe third, three points adrift of his team-mate.



Though most of the first half was predictable, the real action started on lap 48, when Kovalainen made his final refuelling stop. Felipe was back in the lead, heading Alonso and Raikkonen who had only stopped once so far, by 13 seconds. Kovalainen was fourth, followed by Glock, Piquet, Trulli, Kubica, Hamilton with Coulthard completing the top ten. Alonso pitted on lap 50, which promoted Kimi to second for one lap until he made his final stop next time round. With the front runners having completed their stops, this meant Felipe still led, with Kovalainen 15.4 seconds adrift with 18 laps remaining.

In the closing stages, Felipe sensibly slowed the pace so that Kovalainen was only 9.6 behind with eight laps remaining, as Kimi began setting some race fastest laps in fourth place, finally ahead of Alonso. Then, with three laps to go disaster struck, as Felipe's Ferrari emitted a large cloud of smoke and came to a complete stop alongside the pit wall on the start-finish line to retire. This meant that at the flag after 70 laps, Kimi who backed off towards the end to conserve his car, finished third, behind Glock recording his first ever F1 podium. The remaining points positions were filled by Alonso, Hamilton, Piquet, Trulli and Kubica.