Focus: Schumacher's Fifth Title Draws Ever Nearer

Fortune favoured Michael Schumacher again in Canada on Sunday as he took Ferrari's 150th Formula One victory and ended any pretence of a Championship contest.

It now must be surely nothing more than a simple question of where and when the German retains his title, even if Schumacher refused to take anything for granted. His 40th victory for the Italian team was both deserved and deeply satisfying for a driver who could even secure a record-equalling fifth crown next month.

Schumacher won the title with four races to spare last year and now, with a 43-point lead and nine races remaining, the champion could do it even earlier. The gritted teeth elsewhere in the paddock merely reinforced the feeling that the title race remains open only in theory.

Everything fell into place for the champion as he cruised to his sixth victory in eight races while his closest rivals were thrown into disarray. While Schumacher had an insignificant engine failure in his spare car during the morning warm-up, his Colombian rival Juan Pablo Montoya saw his expire during the heat of battle for the second race in a row.

While the German won for the fifth time in Canada, a feat unequalled by any other driver, his old foe Jacques Villeneuve's home jinx continued with a fourth retirement in his last six races in Montreal.

Backdrop

Even the backdrop was rich in passion, poignancy and not a little irony. Outside of Italy there could be few more fitting circuits than the Montreal track named after Jacques' father, the late Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve, for Ferrari to reach their milestone.

A showman idolised by the fans and treated by team founder Enzo almost as a son, Villeneuve won his first Grand Prix in a Ferrari in Montreal in 1978 and died in one 20 years ago in Belgium. The locals have mixed loyalties as a result, with Jacques cast as Schumacher's implacable foe since the Canadian won the world title for Williams in 1997.

The rivalry was only heightened when Villeneuve recently weighed into the controversy caused by Ferrari's decision to order Brazilian Rubens Barrichello to let Schumacher win in Austria last month.

Some of the Canadian's fans brandished banners with Ferrari's prancing horse emblem crossed out and occasionally booed Schumacher but by the end of the race, such sentiments seemed distant indeed.

"I think they just make a sport out of it. When you look from our point of view, it's sort of a competition - our supporters and our enemies," said Schumacher.

"It has always been like this, you cannot have 100 percent supporters. When I see the people who do it and you give them a smile or you give them a kiss, they actually start to laugh. They're just joking around and I don't think they are too serious," he said.

"My past competitor being Canadian is obviously not my best friend and the Canadians do sort of know that I guess."