More damaging allegations about who knew what and when at McLaren mean that Lewis Hamilton’s prospects of being penalised for the McLaren-Ferrari spying scandal increased dramatically yesterday.

The defence that only one man at McLaren – Mike Coughlan, the designer who has been suspended – knew about the 780-page dossier of technical information stolen from Ferrari. This is critical to McLaren’s defence against a charge by the FIA, the sport’s governing body, of “fraudulent conduct”. But it is being steadily undermined as more allegations arise, especially in the Italian press.

In the High Court in London last week it emerged that Jonathan Neale, the McLaren managing director, knew about the dossier, though exactly when has not been confirmed, and, on Saturday, La Repubblica, the Italian daily newspaper, reported that several other team members had also been shown the documents.

It’s not looking good for Lewis Hamilton’s previously plausible championship hopes.

A costly mistake in the pits snatched victory from the grasp of Lewis Hamilton in Sunday’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

However, he took the blame for the blunder while finishing in third place after jumping the gun in the pit lane on the 16th lap.

He admitted, “I selected first gear and was ready to go. I thought I saw the lollipop move a little bit but I was maybe wrong — and I let the clutch out too early. You try to be as quick as you can when the lollipop goes up. I tried to anticipate it and messed it up. It lost me a lot of valuable time and I then just had to push, but I struggled with the balance. I need to step up my game and I intend to do so.”

The Ferrari of winner Kimi Raikkonen was just too fast for Hamilton, who was also beaten to second place by his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton later said, “I made the wrong decision with set-up and it really caused me problems during the race. Even in qualifying I didn’t have the pace I should have had, but it was too late by then to change the car, so I’ve learned a good lesson.”

He is still 12 points ahead in the championship table with eight races to go.

Hamilton added: “We’ve come away with a ninth podium position. I’m the most consistent driver here. I think you have to be happy with that. As a team we need to push as always, but we will try to push harder. As a driver, I am still learning. I still have time to improve through experience. I’ve raced here before but I’ve struggled in terms of pace. We must make sure we get the car set-up right, make sure we keep on moving forward and ideally beat the Ferraris.”

The next race is in Germany on Sunday week.

Ferrari delivered an emphatic one-two victory in the French Grand Prix as Kimi Raikkonen returned to form in style in the last race to be held at Magny-Cours.

Raikkonen came home two seconds ahead of his Ferrari team-mate, Brazilian Felipe Massa, ending McLaren’s three race sequence of victories. It was his first win since the Australian GP in Melbourne on March 18, and the 11th of his career.

Massa, on pole, led for more than half of the race, and finished second ahead of 22-year-old British star Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren. The result meant nevertheless that Hamilton increased his lead in the drivers’ championship to 14 points with his home race, at Silverstone, coming up next weekend.

Team-mate, Fernando Alonso, who started from 10th position on the grid, was unable to make much progress through the field and finished seventh.

Hamilton was seeking a hat-trick of victories but, despite his disappointment, he posted his seventh podium finish in seven races in his first season in Formula One.

The full result was :

1. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro-Ferrari 70 01:30:54.200
2. Felipe Massa Brazil Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro-Ferrari +2.4
3. Lewis Hamilton Britain Vodafone McLaren Mercedes-Mercedes +32.1
4. Robert Kubica Poland BMW Sauber F1 Team-BMW +41.7
5. Nick Heidfeld Germany BMW Sauber F1 Team-BMW +48.8
6. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy ING Renault F1 Team-Renault +52.2
7. Fernando Alonso Spain Vodafone McLaren Mercedes-Mercedes +56.5
8. Jenson Button Britain Honda Racing F1 Team-Honda +58.8
9. Nico Rosberg Germany AT&T Williams-Toyota +68.5
10. Ralf Schumacher Germany Panasonic Toyota Racing-Toyota +1 lap
11. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Honda Racing F1 Team-Honda +1 lap
12. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull Racing-Renault +1 lap
13. David Coulthard Britain Red Bull Racing-Renault +1 lap
14. Alexander Wurz Austria AT&T Williams-Toyota +1 lap
15. Heikki Kovalainen Finland ING Renault F1 Team-Renault +1
16. Takuma Sato Japan Super Aguri F1 Team-Honda +2 laps
17. Adrian Sutil Germany Spyker F1 Team-Ferrari +2 laps
18. Scott Speed USA Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 55 laps completed
19. Christijan Albers Holland Spyker F1 Team-Ferrari 28 laps completed
20. Anthony Davidson Britain Super Aguri F1 Team-Honda 0 laps completed
21. Jarno Trulli Italy Panasonic Toyota Racing-Toyota 0 laps completed
22. Vitantonio Liuzzi Italy Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 0 laps completed.

Silverstone now beckons for the Englishman. It’s likely to be wet conditions so anything can happen.

Lewis Hamilton kept up his inaugural title challenge by posting second place on the grid for tomorrow’s French Grand Prix behind Ferrari driver Felipe Massa.

Felipe Massa in French qualifying

Main rival Fernando Alonso could do no better than 10th after mechanical problems and may start at 20th if he needs to change his engine.

Massa headed championship leader Lewis Hamilton of McLaren to pole with a lap of one minute 15.034 seconds. The second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen will start third.

Hamilton missed out to Massa by 0.07secs in Q3, although at least separated the Ferraris.