EUR: Schumacher strikes back

After a race like Monaco, Michael Schumacher was pretty pleased that the Nürburgring was only a week later. It gave him less time to dwell, he said. What he didn't say was how fired up the Monte Carlo disaster had made him coming into this one, his 'home' race.

Michael's a driver always keen to lay down markers, intent on showing the inner circle that he's still very much The Man. He'd been denied a golden opportunity to do just this at Monaco - all fired up to try for the 'impossible' victory and he gets taken out in a silly incident. That frustration was always going to be directed into a positive energy come qualifying here. He duly nailed a peach of a lap, pole by 0.6sec. It was aided by a very light fuel load. As usual, the tyre performance pattern made tech boss Ross Brawn adamant that Michael had to start from the front, and Takuma Sato's searing pace in pre-qualifying had probably sent him even more in this direction.

Schumacher was back in the sort of conventional track territory that showed his car to its best advantage, of course. But the lap was about more than that; it was about Michael doing his stuff supremely well. To see him through the Ford Kurve - where his line is completely different to every other driver's - or the Bit Kurve, or the long final turn was to see a car alive, dancing on the edge. His strutting body language afterwards was as distinctive as that of his car.

He was on the harder of the team's two Bridgestone choices. The other one may have been okay had we had the sort of cold temperatures still possible in the Eifel mountains even at the end of May, but actually the track temperature was consistently in excess of 30C and the soft tyre degraded badly. He hadn't been able to try both types himself in the Friday practices due to a hydraulic problem limiting his running. But Rubens Barrichello had gathered enough info to make the choice obvious. The car and Michael were sufficiently well suited to the track for the team to be confident of pole regardless, and the harder tyre displayed exceptionally good resistance to degradation on a track that induces a lot of it.

Barrichello was seventh, a second slower than Michael but with a 45kg fuel load that accounted for 70 percent of the deficit. He also made a couple of small mistakes on his lap.

There were superb laps from the second and third men on the grid, Sato and Jarno Trulli. The BAR team were delighted with Taku's efforts. He had gone fastest of all in pre-qualifying with a low fuel run, but calmly reproduced another great lap with a decent load of fuel on board. "Taku seems to be at his best when the situation is very busy," noted tech chief Geoff Willis, "and he can just stay serene. That's why he is usually good on the opening lap, where you have to be very reactive. Normally, qualifying doesn't demand quite that type of quality but he's now developing in other ways, too. That was a very smooth and calm lap. We're delighted." It was the first time a Japanese driver had ever qualified on the front row for a grand prix.

A voiceless Trulli was a couple of tenths adrift of Sato in a Renault that was mighty in the tight twists and turns and under braking but well adrift on straightline speed. Renault was the only team to have brought the compound of Michelin they selected, a slightly harder one than that on the BAR and actually the same one that won here last year. There had been drama getting Trulli's car running in time after a morning hydraulics failure. All told, it was a good effort to again go a couple of tenths quicker than team-mate Fernando Alonso, who was back in sixth.

Kimi Raikkonen gave the McLaren its second successive semi-competitive showing, fourth quickest, a bare few hundredths slower than Trulli even though nothing significant has changed recently on the car. According to Kimi, its taily characteristics actually suited a circuit that has a lot of understeer-inducing bends, there are few of the high-entry speed turns that hurt it and the usual braking unpredictability was masked by a decently grippy Michelin over one lap. It was a significantly softer compound than that used by the other Michelin runners, though. David Coulthard had gone fourth quickest in his during
pre-qualifying but his engine broke on the in-lap from that, the subsequent change consigning him to the back of the grid under the current rules.

Jenson Button, in fifth, didn't get in a great lap, running the BAR wide on the exit of turn four and putting dirt on his tyres for five. "There just wasn't the grip from the track I was expecting," he said. "I came here expecting the front row. The track conditions were quite changeable and maybe I was caught out by that."



There goes Michael Schumacher on his imperious way, in the groove, best driver in the best machine, his afternoon a blur of lapping other cars, no-one really in the same race. There he goes down to turn six, the Ford Kurve, on his own very different line, hugging the inside and turning in from midway across the track, making whole chunks of time on everyone on the way in and losing little, if anything, in the transient part of the turn. It demands a very strong rear end, with a good diff, and above that, a lot of sensitivity from the driver not to induce time-consuming understeer. But that is what Michael's doing, with unerring consistency, lap after lap, getting the car turned in by delicate weight transference and only a little steering.

Schumacher won the race by 18 seconds from his team-mate Rubens Barrichello but analysis of his lap times suggests it could've been half a minute had he been pushed - an average of 0.5sec per lap. Almost all of that advantage came in sector two of the lap, the section that includes Ford Kurve. In his own groove and back in the comfortable territory of a conventional track - one that's only a few miles away from his home town - after the downer of Monaco, this was Michael and Ferrari re-establishing their comfort zone. He climbed out the car and did the Schuey jump for the team and the fans - and for himself.

If there could ever be such a thing as a routine victory for a man so driven, this was one. Ferrari gave him a car with a big advantage at the Nürburgring, but the team is in the image of the driver and they were never going to be complacent about that. On Saturday morning, technical director Ross Brawn fretted about the things that might conspire to take victory from them. The practice sessions of a grand prix weekend cannot give you a full picture of tyre degradation; there isn't enough time available to do full race stints and still get the data required, and adjust the set-up. "You're never quite sure what's going to happen with that," he said. "Sometimes they pick up the grip in the race, sometimes they deteriorate and the others get stronger." He needed to cover the bases.

Enter Barrichello, stage left. Rubens is not getting on with the F2004. "If I have the same set-up as Michael, I get understeer and he doesn't." The new car reacts better to Michael's supreme ability to use left-foot braking to aid direction change than last year's ever did - and so the gap between them has suddenly expanded. Last year Rubens could often take on Michael with the same set-up and the same strategy and look very convincing doing so. This year, that doesn't happen. Listen to the resignation in his words: "Yesterday [Saturday] Michael was quicker so rather than aim to get second place and start on the dirty side, the team offered me another option." His needs and those of Brawn were coinciding nicely. Barrichello was put on a two-stop strategy, theoretically slower over a race distance than the more common three-stop, as employed by Schuey. "It allowed us to cover both ways the tyres might develop," said Brawn.

So it was that Barrichello began the race with around 20kg more fuel than Schuey - costing around 0.7sec per lap. All of which dropped him into the middle of the three-stopping Michelin pack, behind the BARs and Renaults.

Look at Michael on that formation lap, hussling the car along already. It's not like at Monaco where the poleman was on Michelins and chose to force a slow warm-up lap on Michael - playing on the fact that the Bridgestones need more warming up than the Michelins. With his tyres good and hot, look at him go, the Ferrari comfortably in the lead into that troublesome first turn, clean away and out of trouble.

And there is trouble too. Look at Jarno Trulli's Renault, fast off the line as ever, past Takuma Sato's BAR. But that's a long drag to turn one and that Renault still doesn't have a lot of grunt so is no threat to Michael. And now here's Sato coming back at him. What's that about the BAR struggling for brake temperatures on the first lap? Well, the man with the heat gun on the discs did his work pretty good because Taku is able to be later than late into that turn, slicing clean inside the Renault. But it's going to be a tight squeeze on the exit.

Oh, what's that behind? A sudden blanket of tyre smoke as Juan Pablo Montoya, braking late, late, late - trying to put himself where team-mate Ralf Schumacher can't get round his outside - gets surprised by how early Barrichello brakes and locks up at just the point where the racing line is easing right. In a nightmare flash, he's hit Ralf. And they're in crowded space. Jenson Button escapes - there he goes running round the outside of the tangling Williamses - but that da Matta guy in the Toyota has nowhere to go as Ralf runs straight on. They pull off together, wheels and suspensions deranged beyond racing. Just as Juan's thinking he's got clean away with it, Olivier Panis in the other Toyota hops over the front of his car, knocking the Williams' nosecone askew. Whoah! There goes David Coulthard, up to 10th already from the back of the grid.

But that other little territorial scrap for second isn't settled yet. As Sato and Trulli scrabble for traction on the wide dusty exit kerb, there's Kimi Raikkonen getting right alongside them. Sato gets a bit wide where turn two merges with three, Trulli's racing instinct tells him the BAR's now vulnerable into four. The Renault goes for the inside, the BAR turns in anyhow. Look, there's daylight beneath the Renault's outside wheels and there it goes, sliding way wide beyond the exit kerb. Sato's lost momentum too and Raikkonen needs no invite - he flashes the silver car into second.

All of which just could not have been better news for Schuey. Squabbling over his crumbs, his chasers had sprung him free. What's more, the McLaren on its soft-compound Michelins that degraded badly and didn't recover, was about to set an excruciatingly slow pace. Schumacher completed the first lap 2.4sec clear and continued to add that sort of margin to the gap on each lap. Fernando Alonso, Sato, Barrichello, Button and Trulli were in the wake of the second-place McLaren like package tourists following their tour guide. The red car, on a fuel load good for just eight laps, ran away and hid.

Trulli wasn't pleased. "In the confusion of Sato hitting me, my hand touched the speed limiter and I couldn't accelerate, until, after a brief moment, I realised what was happening and turned it off, but by then four cars had passed and I was at the back of the leading pack. He was like a kamikaze into that first turn and if I hadn't moved we would both have ended our races right there. As it was, he hit me two turns later. He's been making mistakes too often and has to calm down." Jarno had suddenly found his voice.

The Sato/Trulli incident meant the news just kept getting better for Ferrari. Not only was Michael escaping up front but the BARs and Renaults weren't able to use their pace advantage over the heavier Barrichello, and so his two-stop strategy was coming into its own. It was particularly bad news for the Renaults, fuelled for just nine (Trulli) and 10 (Alonso) laps. At least the BARs, fuelled for a couple of laps longer, got a few laps running in clean air after Raikkonen pitted on lap nine.

It's just beautiful to watch that red car dancing up front, Michael driving like the devil's on his back. Look at those crazy fans, watching their hero do his stuff. Try telling them this is dull. This is history unfolding in front of your eyes. Imprint it in your mind so you can tell your grandkids one day. It's lap eight and he's 17 seconds in front. Now here he comes for his fuel, the Ferrari snaking as he brakes right on the limit approaching the pitlane speed limit line. Perfect placing in his box, rig on, tyres off, tyres on, 8.3 seconds. Away he goes. The leading pack - that bunch of tourists following the silver car - just ease by as he regains the track and positions himself right on Trulli's tail. God, that's the race won, the back of it broken after just eight of the 60 laps.

That silver thing is coming in now and Trulli's following it. Raikkonen gets back out still in front of the Renault, but oh look, there she blows, great clouds of white steam from the back of the McLaren yet again as a Jag and a Sauber flash by, Mark Webber and Giancarlo Fisichella having a great little scrap. Now Alonso's in; how that boy must be cursing the fact he got only one lap clear of the McLaren. Button's going a lap longer, so he gets two clear laps. Sato gets three. Now they've stopped pitting, so all the others must be two-stopping, including Barrichello who's now leading the race, Michael on his gearbox.

Trulli's stuck behind a whole load of slow two-stoppers, Alonso behind a couple, Button behind Coulthard, all of 'em losing two seconds a lap or more. Only Sato, with his late stop, has been able to get out clear of the slow cars and he's now lined up third. It's lap 15 and Barrichello's making his first stop. There goes Michael. Count the seconds - 16 of them - then Sato, the rejoined Barrichello, Coulthard (two-stopping), Button, Webber, Fisichella.

Where are those Renaults? That traffic's been a disaster for them, their strategies ruined. Mind you, even when in clear air they're still not so quick - about a second per lap slower than that Sato guy in the BAR who's really flying. Consistent too. You need horsepower round here. The BAR's got it, the Renault ain't. What's more, Alonso's steering's playing up, gone all vague on him. It's got so bad he's ran way wide at turn four and lost a whole boatload of places. He's back in 11th now. Wow, look at Button: clean round the outside of DC through turn one.

Pity it's taken him seven laps to do it. That's around 14 seconds he's lost there. DC pitting this lap anyhow.

So that's how Raikkonen formed the pattern of the race. Schumacher didn't need his help to dominate - given that he had at least 0.5sec per lap on Barrichello and Sato - but he got it anyway.

And don't ever think he takes victories for granted - even after 76 of them. Listen to this: "I feel pretty young, not my age. I'm having fun. I have a fantastic team behind me who give me the opportunity to do what I'm doing. I just love what I'm doing."

His team-mate eventually followed him home. "Actually, with hindsight Rubens would've been fine on a three-stop, like Michael," said Brawn, "as the tyres performed perfectly." As it was, he was lucky not to be beaten by Sato even after the latter had suffered those crippling early laps stuck at Raikkonen's pace.

Only 16 laps to go now. Michael's just made his final stop. Sato's pushing like crazy, trying to pull out enough time over Barrichello to get him his extra stop. Damn! He's found Christian Klien and Zsolt Baumgartner on his in-lap. That could be costly. Let's see: a good stop by the BAR boys, 7.3sec, he snakes away from his place, rev limiter cuts in as Barrichello steams past on the other side of the pitwall at 162mph. No, the Ferrari's through; looks like Sato's bid's been foiled. But hang on - he's really nailing it on those nice new tyres and it doesn't look like Rubens is responding...

"Yes, both drivers said that towards the end of their race the car was getting a bit skittish," said Brawn. "I think as the rubber goes down we don't find the levels of grip that we have at the beginning of a race."

Whoah, look! Sato's in the 1m30s, Barrichello the high 31s. Here they come down to turn one. Rubens looks really slow here. Sato's coming from miles back but - he's not is he? - yes he is, he's going for the Ferrari's inside! He's not locked up, he looks well under control but boy he's staking a lot on Rubens playing ball. No, they've hit, bits of BAR front wing all over the track. He's trailing to the pits for a new one, Barrichello's still running okay.

"I thought it was a bit amateur of Sato," said Barrichello. "No," responded Taku. "I had fresh tyres, lots of grip, they felt really good under braking and I had to take advantage of that. I probably wouldn't have had that advantage on the next lap. I was super-confident and so in control. I didn't lock up but he just seemed not to see me."

A lap after a longish stop for a new nose, Sato's engine blew. So Button took a fortunate third. More than half a minute behind him came the two Renaults, Trulli ahead, with Fisichella finally getting the upper hand over Webber in their race-long two-stopping battle, both performing superbly, probably only separated by Fisi's Bridgestones hanging on to their performance for longer in each stint than Webber's Michelins.

Montoya made the final point after a long recovery from his first-lap stop for a new nose and consequent strategy conversion. He made a peach of a save on lap 19, on old tyres, retrieving the car from a position that looked impossible. DC lost a likely fifth place to engine failure after 25 laps. Felipe Massa took ninth, his race ruined by a clutch problem at the start that left him stuck behind the Minardis for a long time. Nick Heidfeld, in 10th, drove his usual excellent race to get the upper hand over Panis, the latter losing time to blue flags at critical moments and suffering high tyre degradation. Klien's Jaguar was 12th, having diced millimetres apart from Montoya for a time. Giorgio Pantano, Gianmaria Bruni and Baumgartner completed the finishers.

There's Michael on the top step. 'Scuse me, I'm going to join the track invaders.