Brawn: first stop key to victory

Ferrari were able to fuel Schumacher with an extra few laps worth of fuel at the first stop, having seen how much fuel Renault had given Alonso, and that allowed the seven-time champion to open up enough of a margin to leapfrog his rival at the second stop.

"Going one more lap at the first stop was crucial," explained Brawn. "We had to sweat it out until the second stop, but just the fact that they (Renault) stopped first allowed us to put a couple of extra laps worth of fuel in which was crucial for the second stop.

"It was important that we went two or three laps longer because the tyres were quicker at the end of the stint. We were sweating a bit because Michael had a problem holding onto him in the middle of the stint."

Schumacher admitted that his charge to victory had not been easy - especially with the windy conditions making it hard to follow Alonso closely.   

"It was difficult," he said. "We were driving pretty competitively but the wind made it a bit more difficult to drive behind in the slipstream - it made it tricky in certain areas."

Schumacher had hoped to take the lead from Alonso at the first round of stops, but lost out on a chance of that when he nearly lost control of his Ferrari halfway around his in-lap.

"I thought we could do it at the first pitstop, but I pushed a bit too hard at turn six and nearly lost it," he explained. "That is why I had to spend time behind him until the second stop.

"The performance between us was varying at various points of the race. He was slower and then I was slower but then I was able to pick it up. Before the pitstop he was pushing pretty hard and lucky we could make the place fortunately."