Another perfect day for Ferrari

Thousands of Italian fans cheered the pair and third placed finisher Eddie Irvine underneath the circuit's new podium, which stretches out above the pitwall.

"I don't think we can ever expect to experience such a feeling again as we did on the podium with people as far as the eye could see," said Barrichello, who led Schumacher in a race carefully controlled by the Ferrari team management.

"As for the race, I was a bit confused about how I got the lead. I saw Ralf [Schumacher] slow down and I dived inside him. Then I slipstreamed Montoya and got past him too. It was the perfect lap and the car was just getting better all the time so I was able to push hard."

Schumacher's second place was enough to break his own record of points scored in a season. He said: "Before this weekend, I did not want to think about the possibility of this result, because we have already done so much this year. But the one-two result was the ideal dream result.

"I really enjoyed the podium ceremony. I could look all the way down the straight and it was just full of Tifosi and that was an amazing feeling. I have plenty of experience of being on the podium, but I have never seen anything like this. It was a perfect day for us."