Briatore shrugs off Schumacher's win

Schumacher got his season back on track with a well-earned win at Imola, after almost race-long pressure from Alonso whose car proved quicker for much of the race.

And although Ferrari believe that their return to form puts them back in contention for the world championship, Briatore claims the Italian squad's Imola performance was a one-off and the only man he fears this year is McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen - who could manage no better than fifth.

"For us, this result is very good," said Briatore. "We knew this circuit was not best for us and we still finished second. Better than that, we took more points from Raikkonen.

"I believe our contender for the championship is Raikkonen and not Schumacher - which is great."

Although Renault's gamble in bringing forward Alonso's final stop in a bid to jump Schumacher in the pits failed to pay off, Briatore says he has no complaints.

"It was a super race for the spectators, a super race for everybody and we try, we try everything, and in the end I don't think it made any sense to take the risk because that was not the case.

"It was only a question of strategy. Our calculation of Michael was that he was stopping with us (on the same lap) and if we stopped behind Michael then we had no chance, so we try to stop early - although I didn't want to take any risks.

"But Michael did an incredible in-lap, he did it 1.6-1.7 seconds quicker than us, and that was good enough. But for me second place was great.

"Eight points for us is the main thing. He won the race and we finished second, which is quite good for the constructors' championship and for Fernando."

Briatore added: "We are doing the job. This was going to be the worst track for us. Always Imola is bad, it is gone now, so let's see what happens in Germany. But we are very competitive and that is the main thing."