Berger Praises Ralf's 'Perfect Race'

Williams driver Ralf Schumacher earned Gerhard Berger's praise following his victory at today's European Grand Prix in front of his home crowd.

Ralf led Colombian teammate Juan Pablo Montoya to Williams' first one-two finish since his last win in Malaysia last year and roared past World Champion Michael's Ferrari at the start to do it.

Ralf was criticised after the previous Grand Prix in Canada for his failure to pass his brother, for not being aggressive enough as he sat behind the older Schumacher for lap after lap in a family one-two.

On Sunday, delighted engine partners BMW piled on the compliments instead as Ralf applied the metaphorical icing to their cake at their home race after they had announced a new five-year deal with Williams.

"I feel really happy for the team and especially for Ralf," said BMW motorsport director Berger. "Today he demonstrated to everybody that he is a first-class driver. Ralf drove a perfect race. He showed everyone that he can win a race and is capable of being a world champion."

The victory was the fifth of Ralf's career, and his second in Germany.

His timing was impeccable, on the eve of his 28th birthday on Monday, and had been threatened for some time after he qualified on pole for the previous two races. Team boss Frank Williams had said, when questioned on Saturday about Ralf's commitment, that he felt his driver was desperate to prove a point.

"I'm pretty sure that Ralf is burning to piss on his brother, apologies to the ladies," he said in a language that left no room for doubt.

Ralf certainly gave that impression.

"I had a very good start and for some reason Michael did not," he said, silencing those who said the five times champion had him in his thrall. I took the chance and jumped into second position into the first corner. I think that seen from the outside that manoeuvre looked more spectacular than it actually was."

After Canada, Williams and technical director Patrick Head had suggested that Montoya might have made more of a stab at overtaking than Ralf. Asked how he felt now, Ralf could not resist another dig at his denigrators in the media.

"I don't know. It's down to the experts, those who call themselves experts after the race," he said.