Lewis Hamilton's second season in Formula One could yet bring him his first drivers' championship, but if it does, he will look back on the French Grand Prix here yesterday as among the lowest of the low points.

Having started from thirteenth on the grid, courtesy of the ten-place grid penalty imposed after his pitlane crash in Canada two weeks ago, the young McLaren Mercedes driver needed, at all costs, to produce a measured and controlled display to ensure he got himself in the points.

But in a moment of first-lap, adrenaline-fuelled impetuosity, Hamilton drove overaggressively when trying to get past Sebastian Vettel, the German Toro Rosso driver, and found himself encumbered with a drive-through penalty for running off-track though the apex of Turn 7, and his race was run.

On a damp day in Burgundy that was dominated by Ferrari, Hamilton could finish only tenth despite some enterprising and impressive driving in the mid-field. A long way ahead of him, Kimi Raikkonen, of Ferrari, should have cruised from pole to flag to his third win of the season, but a structural failure in his car's exhaust system forced the Finn to give way to his team-mate, Felipe Massa, who gratefully accepted his third victory of the season.

The win lifted Massa - widely and unfairly regarded as not good enough to be world champion - into the outright lead in the drivers' championship, two points ahead of Robert Kubica, of BMW Sauber, who was fifth yesterday. This makes Massa the first Brazilian to lead the title chase since the great Ayrton Senna was at the head of the field following the Monaco Grand Prix in 1993.

The laconic Raikkonen is now third, three points behind Kubica, while Hamilton slipped from second to fourth, ten points off the lead. It is still early days, but there was a distinct feeling, as the Formula One circus packed up ready for testing at Silverstone this week, that the 23-year-old's season is unravelling. As one veteran of more than 500 grands prix in the press room put it: “It's all beginning to snowball in the wrong direction.”

Whether that will turn out to be true, only time will tell. What is unarguable, however, is that Hamilton's second season in Formula One is proving to be far more error-prone than his first. Last year he drove to nine podiums in a row in his first nine races. This year he has returned from three race weekends without a point, more than any other driver in the top eight in the championship. He has made two big mistakes and arguably another one yesterday and he has incurred penalties on three occasions.

What is more Hamilton, and his father, Anthony, who manages him, have become openly irritated by what they see as the unnecessarily bad press that he has been getting as a result. This was clearly on Hamilton's mind when he spoke after qualifying on Saturday. “I found out that there was a lot of negativity in the media, and that's to be expected,” he said.

“That's what they do: they build you up and then they break you down, but they can't break me. There's a lot of crap coming out in the papers. I'm here to race, and I don't want all this stuff. But I'm very strong mentally, and my belief in my own ability is stronger than ever and there's nothing that can break me.”

Within McLaren, where the collective belief in Hamilton remains as strong as his own self-belief, there was irritation at yesterday's penalty which they did not believe their man deserved. In the heat of the moment Ron Dennis, the team principal, indicated McLaren was being “picked-on” by the FIA. Hamilton himself described it as “an extremely close” call. “I felt I'd got past fairly and was ahead going into the corner. But I was on the outside and couldn't turn in, in case we both crashed. Then I lost the back end and drove over the curb,” he said.

As he indicated, the key question was whether Hamilton had got ahead of Vettel before he ran off the track, missing the apex of the corner. The stewards either believed he had not achieved this or concluded that he could not have pulled off the manoeuvre without running off track. The incident was shown in coverage only from the in-car camera on Hamilton's McLaren. However, the FIA, the world governing body, confirmed last night that the stewards had viewed it from a separate angle and the infringement was said to be “very clear”. They found that Hamilton had gained an unfair advantage by missing the apex.

In response to suggestions that McLaren are being unfairly treated, it was also being pointed out by the FIA that Hamilton's was the third drive-through penalty handed out this year. The previous two were imposed on Rubens Barrichello, the Honda driver, for speeding in the pitlane in Malaysia and on Raikkonen after Ferrari failed to fit his tyres within three minutes of the start at Monaco.

Mention in dispatches yesterday must go to Jarno Trulli, the veteran Toyota driver who filled the third place on the podium after a tenacious drive in a car that was no match for either the Ferraris ahead of him or the McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen, who finished one place behind him.

Results

(70 laps): 1, F Massa, below (Br, Ferrari) 1hr 31min 50.245sec; 2, K Raikkonen (Fin, Ferrari) 1:32:08.145; 3, J Trulli (It, Toyota) 1:32:18.445; 4, H Kovalainen (Fin, McLaren Mercedes) 1:32:19.145; 5, R Kubica (Pol, BMW Sauber) 1:32:20.745; 6, M Webber (Aus, Red Bull Renault) 1:32:30.545; 7, N Piquet Jr (Br, Renault) 1:32:31.245; 8, F Alonso (Sp, Renault) 1:32:33.545; 9, D Coulthard (GB, Red Bull Renault) 1:32:41.245; 10, L Hamilton (GB, McLaren Mercedes) 1:32:44.745; 11, T Glock (Ger, Toyota) 1:32:47.945; 12, S Vettel (Ger, Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari) 1:32:48.245; 13, N Heidfeld (Ger, BMW Sauber) 1:32:52.245; 14, R Barrichello (Br, Honda); 15, K Nakajima (Japan, Williams Toyota); 16, N Rosberg (Ger, Williams Toyota); 17, S Bourdais (Fr, Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari); 18, G Fisichella (It, Force India Ferrari); 19, A Sutil (Ger, Force India Ferrari) all at 1 lap behind. Not classified: 20, J Button (GB, Honda) 16 laps completed.

Qualifying positions (*ten place penalties for pitlane collision at Canadian GP; †five place penalty for impeding during qualifying): 1, Raikkonen 1min 16.449sec; 2, Massa 1:16.490; 3, Alonso 1:16.840; 4, Trulli 1:16.920; 5, Kubica 1:17.037; 6, Webber 1:17.233; 7, Coulthard 1:17.426; 8, Glock 1:17.596; 9, Piquet Jr 1:15.770; 10, †Kovalainen 1:16.944; 11, Heidfeld 1:15.786; 12, Vettel 1:15.816; 13, *Hamilton 1:16.693; 14, Bourdais 1:16.045; 15, Nakajima 1:16.243; 16, Button 1:16.306; 17, Barrichello 1:16.330; 18, Fisichella 1:16.971; 19, Sutil 1:17.053; 20, *Rosberg 1:16.235.

Championship positions: Drivers: 1, Massa 48pts; 2, Kubica 46; 3, Raikkonen 43; 4, Hamilton 38; 5, Heidfeld 28; 6, Kovalainen 20; 7, Trulli 18; = Webber 18; 9, Alonso 10; 10, Rosberg 8; 11, Nakajima 7; 12, Coulthard 6; 13, Barrichello 5; = Vettel 5; = Glock 5; 16, Button 3; 17, Piquet Jr 2; = Bourdais 2.

Constructors: 1, Ferrari 91; 2, BMW Sauber 74; 3, McLaren Mercedes 58; 4, Red Bull Renault 24; 5, Toyota 23; 6, Williams Toyota 15; 7, Renault 12; 8, Honda 8; 9, Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari 7.

Grands Prix to come: July 6: British GP (Silverstone). July 20: German GP (Hockenheim). Aug 3: Hungarian GP (Budapest). Aug 24: European GP (Valencia). Sept 7: Belgian GP (Spa-Francorchamps). Sept 14: Italian GP (Monza). Sept 28: Singapore GP. Oct 12: Japanese GP (Fuji). Oct 19: Chinese GP (Shanghai). Nov 2: Brazilian GP (Interlagos).