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Schumacher returns to his winning ways
Michael Schumacher dominated the European Grand Prix as the Ferrari star led from his 60th Pole Position to record his 76th career victory.
With six wins from seven races, Schumacher led home team- mate Rubens Barrichello to record their fourth one-two results of the season. Jenson Button finished in third position securing his fifth podium position of the season. The start of the 60-lap European Grand Prix saw plenty of action as Juan Pablo Montoya made a mess of the first turn. With his brakes locked up the Colombian slid into his BMW Williams team-mate Ralf Schumacher. The German's front right wheel and suspension were damaged in the impact and he veered to the left taking out the unfortunate Cristiano da Matta. Montoya pitted at the end of the first lap for a new front wing, but in effect, his race for a podium position was over there and then. The story of the European Grand Prix was however all about Michael Schumacher and another dominant display as he pulled three second a lap over his rivals in the opening stages to build a cushion of 18 seconds he would retain for the chequered flag.
Jenson Button pushed hard in his BAR Honda to catch the two-stop Rubens Barrichello in his Ferrari and was just 4.5 seconds behind the Brazilian at the end of the race. For BAR Honda, Button¡¯s third place was bitter-sweet as it was Takuma Sato who should have gained the position.
Takuma Sato made history as he became the first Japanese driver to start a Grand Prix from the front row. An error on the first lap let Kimi Raikkonen run second behind Schumacher for a while but late in the race Sato exited the pits for the third time behind Barrichello who stopped just twice. Sato made his only mistake of the day as he dove down the inside into turn one. Sato¡¯s BAR Honda made contact with Barrichello¡¯s Ferrari and his race was effectively over as he pitted for a new front wing. It would prove academic anyway as Sato¡¯s Honda V10 soon failed in a style similar to a week ago at Monaco. Monaco Grand Prix winner Jarno Trulli had a low key race in his Renault to finish in fourth position ahead of Fernando Alonso while Giancarlo Fisichella drove a very solid race in his Sauber Petronas to finish in sixth position after starting the 60-lap race from the back of the grid. Fisichella¡¯s two stop strategy paid off and it was a similar story for Jaguar racer Mark Webber who tripled his championship total to three points with a seventh place finish ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya in his BMW Williams - who was lapped by race winner Michael Schumacher. Felipe Massa finished in ninth position in the second Sauber but never showed the pace of his team-mate Fisichella, while Nick Heidfeld brought his Jordan Ford home in tenth position, just half a second behind Massa. Toyota had a race to forget with Cristiano da Matta retiring at the first turn. Olivier Panis showed little pace in his TF104 and finished almost half a minute behind Heidfeld in 11th position. Christian Klien finished 12th in his Jaguar ahead of Giorgio Pantano in the second Jordan and the two Minardis of Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner who were three laps off the pace but at least showed strng reliability. Over at McLaren Mercedes it was another race weekend to forget. Kimi Raikkonen ran second during the early laps, but was clearly holding up a train of six rivals. Soon there was the characteristic billow of blue smoke and Mercedes lost their second V10 of the weekend. David Coulthard started his race from the pit lane following an engine change yesterday, but despite a strong race, it was another point- less day for the McLaren driver as he too suffered what looked to be an engine failure. Back at the front, Michael Schumacher drove a faultless race once again and his career points total now stands at 1098 points from his 202 starts... Some 5.4 points per race he has entered... A staggering statistic. The Formula One circus packs up now and heads to the test tracks of Europe before setting up camp at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in two weeks time for the Canadian Grand Prix. |
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