Ferrari back on top in France

Ferrari bounced back to their dominant best on Friday when they took over at the top of the time-sheets in opening practice.

Ferrari bounced back to their dominant best on Friday when they took over at the top of the time-sheets in opening practice for Sunday's French Grand Prix.

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Brazilian Felipe Massa led the way with a best lap of one minute and 15.453 seconds, a time that lifted him just 0.035 seconds ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen of Finland.

Raikkonen was fastest in the morning session, but his partner took over in the afternoon when the previously dominant McLaren Mercedes-Benz team struggled to maintain the form that carried them to triumphant victories in the three previous races.

On a cool and cloudy day in Burgundy, on the final running of the French Grand Prix at the Magny-Cours circuit, Ferrari were on top throughout the day and left their rivals struggling in pursuit.

Drivers world championship-leading British rookie Lewis Hamilton, 22, was unable to improve on fourth place at the end of the day behind the two Ferraris and the Torro Rosso of American Scott Speed.

Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi, in the second Torro Rosso, was fifth ahead of sixth-placed Brition David Coulthard, 36, in a Red Bull and German-born Nico Rosberg in a Williams.

Defending double drivers world champion Fernando Alonso of Spain was eighth.

The session ended in a spectacular moment of drama when Raikkonen spun off the circuit, but regained control of his car, at the Imola corner where earlier Alonso had also endured a major 'moment' during the session.