Even with a broken exhaust and a stricken Ferrari in danger of packing up altogether in the closing laps, Kimi Raikkonen hung on to revive his Formula One title defence on Sunday.
The Finn, leading team mate Felipe Massa from pole position, was in control of the French Grand Prix until the failure halfway through forced the champion to slow and concede victory to the eager Brazilian.
The second place was scant consolation for another win plucked from his grasp but it was welcome nonetheless after two races without points.
Raikkonen moved up to third overall, five points off the lead.
'It is disappointing not to win but eight points is good for the championship,' he said.
'The exhaust broke and it changes all the settings and you burn a big hole on the side of the car,' he added. 'In the last few laps it almost stopped a few times so I think a few more laps and we would not have finished the race.
'Luckily the car was strong enough and it lasted, so even with the broken exhaust we were still fast enough and we had enough gap to the third place so we were able to keep the second place.'
The eight points were Raikkonen's first since his third place in Turkey last month and allowed him to overtake McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in the standings.
The next race is Hamilton's home British Grand Prix but Raikkonen is likely to have a new engine for that race, unlike his 23-year-old McLaren rival who finished 10th on Sunday after adding a drive-through penalty to a 10 place demotion on the starting grid.
An unscheduled engine change would normally incur a 10 place penalty on the grid, with the units having to last two races in a row, but a change in the rules for 2008 allows teams one penalty-free switch per driver.
The change must however be the driver's first of the season and has to be the result of a genuine failure rather than for tactical reasons.
'After such a heavy race from the middle to the end, it is very likely that we will need to change it. So we need the joker,' said Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali.
'We will do the analysis later on tomorrow, there's no rush to do anything more than eventually change it when we go to Silverstone,' he added.
Domenicali said it was not immediately clear what caused the problem.
'We had almost half of the race with all the breaking parts so it will be difficult to have the pieces to hand, they are somewhere around the track.'
