Oh What a Feeling: Trulli Celebrates Rare Podium Finish

It's been a long time since Jarno Trulli has been able to enjoy the view from the podium.  He's quite lucky to be there, too, after a final lap overtaking attempt by Heikki Kovalainen almost went tragically wrong.

The Toyota team had been in strong contention (for a place) throughout most of the early stages, though unfortunately Timo Glock missed the opportunity to obtain points after making a pit stop that left him with tyre trouble for the remainder of the race.

Heikki Kovalainen was most impressive in improving from a penalty-enforced starting position of 11th to fight back for 4th place, although once again his competitiveness almost proved his undoing, going wheel-to-wheel with Trulli with barely a lap to go.

Most disappointing were Robert Kubica (5th), David Coulthard (9th), Lewis Hamilton (10th), Nick Heidfield (13th) and Nico Rosberg (16th).

Kimi Raikkonen was the logical favorite, but a slight case of car trouble on the 39th lap caused a setback, and Felipe Massa slipped into the lead.  The result was still a quinella for the team, but not quite in the anticipated order.

Kubica's failure to secure a top 4 position has allowed Massa to sneak ahead on the points table as well.   Kubica now has 46 points, putting him two behind Massa who is on 48.

Above all, the true winner of the day may have been the French Grand Prix itself, which has been under threat of being dropped from the Formula One calendar.

The race was an entertaining 92 minutes, and remarkably for such a difficult course there were few mishaps.   The only driver not to finish was Jenson Button, after an accidental collision with Sebastien Bourdais on lap 14.

Button had miscalculated the distance to the turn, and when slotting in behind Bourdais was travelling too fast to brake before making contact.  Although the contact was not severe, it loosened the front wing.  This detached shortly afterwards, forcing Button out of the race.

Bourdais was able to continue without incident, and eventually finished 17th.