LEWIS Hamilton had his poorest result since he was third on his debut in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

But the rookie was still good enough to clinch third and a podium finish at Magny-Cours, behind the Ferrari's of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa It is now eight successive podiums for Hamilton, who was on a three-stop strategy, and while he will be happy with the gap to Alonso, the Ferraris are back in the picture.

This was Raikkonen's second victory for the Maranello marque - and 11th of his career - after opening up with a win at Melbourne, but he still trails Hamilton by 22 points, with Massa 17 adrift.

"I didn't get off to the best start," said 22-year-old Hamilton. "I don't know what happened, but I saw Kimi flying past.

"But I'm still feeling fairly confident, and as long as we continue to have reliability, then I can look forward to my home race."

Raikkonen, criticised last week by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo for not showing his mettle this season, made a fine start in taking Hamilton on the run down to the first corner.

Hamilton, who had started on the front row alongside pole man Massa, was slow away - a rare error in what has been an almost flawless season.

But it was enough to allow Raikkonen to pass, and then it came down to the second pit stop of the 70-lap race.

Massa led at two-thirds distance on lap 43, but while his stop took nine seconds, Raikkonen - who came in three laps later - was 7.8secs, allowing him to take the lead and the win.

Behind Hamilton, Robert Kubica was a fine fourth on his return to BMW Sauber after missing the race in Indianapolis following his horror smash in Montreal.

Team-mate Nick Heidfeld was fifth, with the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella sixth, Alonso seventh, and at long last a point - his first of the season - for Jenson Button in his Honda.

There were moments of drama, initially on lap one when the Toyota of Jarno Trulli ran into the Renault of Heikki Kovalainen.

Alonso, who had started from 10th due to a gearbox problem in qualifying, just managed to avoid running into the Finn who had spun and was facing the wrong way.

It proved to be the end of Trulli's race, while that of Kovalainen - who had started sixth - was compromised and he could only claim 15th.

Then there was Anthony Davidson in his Super Aguri and the Toro Rosso of Tonio Liuzzi also retiring after their clash on the opening lap.

Davidson initially braked late into the second corner of Grande Courbe, skidding into the back of Liuzzi.

As Liuzzi spun, Davidson followed up by driving into the side of the Italian's car, much to his consternation.

One of the most remarkable moments unfolded on lap 30, courtesy of the calamitous Spyker team and the woeful Christijan Albers.

The Dutchman came in for a routine stop, but pulled away too quickly, dragging the entire fuel hose out of the re-fuelling rig.

As he pulled onto the pit lane, the hose was still attached to his car and unsurprisingly he was forced to pull over soon after.

Spyker's afternoon took another turn for the worse moments later when Adrian Sutil was given a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane, culminating in the German finishing 17th and last.