Ferrari delighted to see Kimi engine make it.

Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali has admitted that seeing Kimi Raikkonen make it to the end of the French Grand Prix provided a real boost to the Scuderia as it heads into the second half of a season-long battle with Mclaren and BMW Sauber.

The Finn was comfortably leading the race at Magny-Cours when he suffered an exhaust problem that not only allowed team-mate Felipe Massa through to take the victory, but also threatened to leave him pointless for the third straight race.

Despite fluctuating engine performance, Raikkonen managed to soldier on, initially matching Massa's pace, before coming home in second place with remnants of the exhaust outlet either having detached completely from the car or flapping wildly on its flanks.

"If you lose the exhaust, there's no more performance - and then you start to have different parameters on the engine," Domenicali explained, "The temperatures ...