Race: Schuey takes last lap win in Spain

It was an incredible end to a race which had already had its share of twists: Schumacher had dominated the first two thirds, but had slowed dramatically after his second stop, allowing Hakkinen to take the lead and build up a near-40 second lead over the struggling Ferrari.

But with the chequered flag in sight, Hakkinen slowed, then pulled off for good as his MP4-16 belched smoke and died. The Finn could only shrug and shake his head as the Ferrari trundled by to give Schumacher his third victory of the season.

"I'm simply sorry," said Schumacher afterwards. "We'd both done a very good race up to that point and he'd jumped me at the second stops. It's not the way I wanted to win a race, but it's happened to me before and it's happened to Mika before.

"I had a huge vibration in the final laps and thought maybe a tyre was de-laminating. We thought about another stop, but it was a worry until the end."

Hakkinen was outwardly stoic, but still obviously gutted at missing out on his fourth Spanish GP win in a row, saying: "It's super-disappointing. Godammit! It was going so easy - I didn't have to push, but it just didn't work out. It would have been incredible to win my fourth race in a row, but it's alright."

At the start, the Finn tailed Schumacher until the first set of stops, but pitted later than the Ferrari and found himself some four seconds off the lead as the second round of stops approached. Again, Schuey pitted first, but slowed in traffic as Hakkinen's pit stop window approached.

The second stop wasn't particularly rapid for Hakkinen, but it was enough to put him the length of the pit straight ahead of the obviously ailing Ferrari. As the laps wound down, the gap increased to nearly 40 seconds - until disaster struck on the final lap...

The last-lap shake-up gave Juan Pablo Montoya his first points of the season with an unexpected second for Williams-BMW, with Jacques Villeneuve giving BAR its first ever podium after over two seasons of trying. Neither had ever looked like challenging the big two, but were there when it counted.

"My start was good, thanks to the launch control," said Montoya, who'd qualified only 11th, "and after that the car was good all day long. It was quite tricky to drive and we weren't in the same league as Ferrari and McLaren."

Villeneuve was relieved that the big-bucks BAR operation had finally secured a podium, saying: "It's great. Everybody's worked so hard over the last three years and it's a boost we all needed. I couldn't have gone quicker, but I'm lucky that some other cars dropped out."

David Coulthard, who came to Spain sharing the points lead with Schumacher, had stalled on the dummy grid and was forced to start from the back. He then lost his front wing in an opening lap melee, but was able to charge through to finish fifth, behind Jarno Trulli's Jordan-Honda.

"I've got to look at that as a bonus in this situation," said the Scot. "We'll try and understand why the engine stalled, but we salvaged something from what could have been a nightmare."

Nick Heidfeld's Sauber completed the points-scorers in sixth, with the gutted Hakkinen eventually classified a lowly ninth.

Rubens Barrichello also found himself out of the points after a broken rear suspension on his Ferrari pitched him off and out of third place. The Brazilian pitted for new tyres, but on his return to the track, it was obvious that the problem was terminal.

"I thought it was a puncture," he said, "but it was soon obvious that the rear suspension had let me down. I don't know if Michael slowing was a similar thing - we'll have to wait and see."

Other high-profile retirements included Ralf Schumacher, who expressed bafflement at a spin that pitched him into the gravel in Turn 10, and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who collided with Jaguar newcomer Pedro de la Rosa, putting both out on the spot.

With five rounds down, Schumacher heads the world championship standings with 36 points. Coulthard is second on 28, with Rubens Barrichello third on 14. Ferrari has 50 points in the constructors' title battle, ahead of the 32 of McLaren and the 18 of Williams.

For full results, click here.