Ferrari has ended the McLaren-Mercedes supremacy in Formula One after Raikkonen won the French Grand Prix, closely followed by his team-mate, Felipe Massa.

Raikkonen, who started the race from third place on the grid, beat championship leader Lewis Hamilton in a McLaren-Mercedes into the first corner and then got past the long-time leader Massa through a quick second pit stop.

"The start was fine for me, the car was good all the time and I was very happy," said Raikkonen. "It was a good day for me and the team. We've had a hard time of late, but I expected to have difficult times in joining the team."

Kimi Raikkonen won the 70-lap race over 308.586 kilometres in 1 hour 30 minutes 54.200 seconds and Felipe Massa trailed by 2.4 seconds.

“I lost the race today because of the traffic,” Massa said. “I was so disappointed with the traffic. I lost so much time. You lose so much downforce and then you lose speed. When I was alone I had the speed. As long as I passed the traffic I was all right.”

Still, the British wonder-boy, Lewis Hamilton kept his perfect record of making the podium in each race and handily leads the drivers standings with 64 points from eight of 17 events.

“I don't like being overtaken. It is the first race I was overtaken,” Hamilton said. “But the fact is I finished on the podium again. I extended my lead in the championships, so I couldn't be happier.”

The other McLaren-Mercedes’ driver, Fernando Alonso had to settle for seventh after managing only 10th on the grid due to gearbox problems, has 50.

Behind Hamilton, Robert Kubica was a fourth on his return to BMW Sauber after missing the race in Indianapolis following his horror smash in Canadian Grand Prix. Kubica’s team-mate Nick Heidfeld was fifth, with the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella sixth, and at long last a point for Jenson Button in his Honda.

The next race is the British GP on July 8.