Brawn: Germany 'an important threshold'

Schumacher took his third consecutive victory of the season at Hockenheim to reduce the gap to Alonso to just 11 points with six races remaining, after the Renault driver could manage no better than a distant fifth place finish.

In the last three races, the seven-time world champion has reduced the gap to Alonso by 14 points.

Sunday's win was crucial for Schumacher in that it meant Alonso cannot now afford to finish behind the German in all the remaining races to secure his second crown.

And Brawn believes this is an important change in the championship situation.

"I think it's quite an important threshold to get through, that at least now he is going to have to beat us in one race to win the championship," said Brawn.

"It is an important threshold, both mathematically and psychologically. I won't pretend it was a great race, but it was a great result."

Sunday's race was the first time this season that Alonso didn't lead a lap. It was also the first race since Hungary last year that a Renault driver was not on the podium.

Renault's disappointing performance coincided with the ban of the innovative mass damper system that the French squad are trying to use again in Hungary, having asked the FIA to get dispensation to run the device.

Brawn wasn't so sure Renault's pace had been affected by the ban, and praised the development rate of his own team.

"Well they have to answer that, I can't judge that," he said. "I commented a few races ago that we had a few steps on the car which didn't show straight away because we weren't on top of the tyres.

"Some of the biggest steps of the season were made with the team, were made in the last few months with Ferrari, particularly with the aero but also on the mechanical side.

"We had new rear suspension here, we had some developments on the suspension a few races ago. In every sense the guys at Ferrari are doing a fantastic job at developing the car.

"When we get the tyres right, along with those developments the car is extremely strong."