Raikkonen's hopes hit by engine failure

Kimi Raikkonen's hopes of winning the French Grand Prix receded significantly yesterday after the McLaren title contender suffered a blown engine in practice.

The Finn, second in the Formula One championship to Renault's Fernando Alonso, pulled over after just four minutes of the afternoon session as smoke billowed out from the Mercedes engine.

The failure looked sure to cost Raikkonen 10 places on the starting grid and left him with a tough task in tomorrow's race.

Spanish test driver Pedro de la Rosa, who will not race tomorrow, showed McLaren's pace with the fastest times in both sessions while Raikkonen's Colombian team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya was second in the afternoon.

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, hoping to become the first driver to win the same grand prix eight times tomorrow after three wins in four years at Magny-Cours, was third fastest after being only 11th in the morning.

Alonso, winner of four races this season and runner-up in Magny-Cours last year, has won four of the nine grands prix. Raikkonen has three victories under his belt.

The Spaniard leads the standings with 59 points to Raikkonen's 37.

Yesterday's first practice, with De la Rosa lapping well inside the race lap record, set the scene for a battle between Renault and McLaren but champions Ferrari and BAR were also in the picture.

Alonso, who took no points from the previous two North American races, was second quickest at a home track for both Renault and tyre partners Michelin.

De la Rosa's morning time was 1:14.778, with his afternoon best 1:14.460 on a changeable day. Alonso's best was 1:15.183.

Yesterday's practice also marked a welcome return to normality after two weeks dominated by the fallout from the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis, where neither Alonso nor Raikkonen raced after the seven Michelin-equipped teams withdrew.

While Michelin topped the timesheets, Schumacher kept Bridgestone's flag flying in the tyre war between the two.

The German won at Indianapolis, Ferrari's first triumph of the season, in a race of just six cars after Michelin said they could not guarantee the safety of their tyres.

Tomorrow's race will be the first French GP in 40 years without a French driver but Olivier Panis provided a local flavour by driving the third Toyota in the practice session.

Panis, the last Frenchman to race in Formula One before he retired last season, was seventh and sixth quickest in sessions.

Toyota's Italian Jarno Trulli, who took the team's first Formula One pole position at Indianapolis but then did not race, failed to set a timed lap in the morning but was eighth in the second stint.

Jordan's Portuguese driver Tiago Monteiro, third in Indianapolis, came down to earth with a bang after flying high over a kerb and damaging his car's rear suspension in the first practice. He lapped slowest in the second.

Jordan delay debut

Jordan have delayed the race debut of their heavily revised Formula One car until this month's German Grand Prix, Monteiro said.

"It's not ready yet, I would say," he said at the French Grand Prix, where the Toyota-powered team had hoped to bring in the EJ15B.

"We had some teething problems (with) cooling in particular so we are going to be using it as the third car here and at Silverstone," he said.