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Only an exhaust failure at his car could stop Kimi Räikkönen from winning today's French Grand Prix in Magny Cours. But the Finn nevertheless could take the checkered flag on a very good second place with his shattered Ferrari at the end.

Kimi had a very good start and defended his pole position ahead of Felipe Massa. Behind the two Ferrari drivers Jarno Trulli improved on the third place by passing the Renault of Fernando Alonso.

While a fight for the positions erupted behind Kimi, the Finn could turn his laps unflusteredly at the top of the field. Kimi managed to extend his lead gradually on Felipe Massa in the first part of the race. When Kimi came into the pits for his first stop in lap 21, he already lay 4.3 seconds ahead of Massa. Massa then also absolved his own first pit stop two laps later and Kimi was again ahead of his Brazilian team mate.

Kimi then drove very fast and constantly also after his first stop. Even is team mate Felipe Massa couldn't follow the pace of the Finn and already had a gap of 6.5 seconds in lap 30.

But only a few laps later a right hand side exhaust failure saw Kimi suddenly lose a second and a half a lap. Therefore Kimi let pass his team mate Felipe Massa in lap 39, and the Finn only tried to take his shattered Ferrari over the distance. 25 laps before the end of the race, second placed Kimi was 20 seconds ahead of Jarno Trulli, but he lost a second on the Toyota driver in every lap.

Kimi then absolved his second and last pit stop in lap 53 and returned to the track on the second place behind Felipe Massa. Kimi's lap times stabilized in the meantime, but it was to late to try an attack on Massa. Despite the exhaust failure, Kimi finally could finish on a great second place to collect eight points for the championship.

With a total of 43 points, Kimi now is third in championship behind Robert Kubica (46 points) and Felipe Massa (48 points), who took the lead in the driver's championship with his victory today.

By the way, Kimi managed to drive the fastest lap of the race in today's French Grand Prix for the fifth time in consequence. It was also the 30th fastest race lap of his Formula One career. In the statistics he catches up with Nigel Mansell with that. Only Alain Prost (41) and Michael Schumacher (76) achieved more fastest race laps in their career.

"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. The F2008 is definitely very strong because usually, when you have this sort of problem, retirement is almost inevitable. There is still a long way to go in the championship and I am in a better position than I was at this stage last year: let's see what I can do in the next part of the series."

Race results: