Ralf Happy to Break Personal Monaco Jinx

Ralf Schumacher swept aside his Monaco jinx on Sunday, finishing the most glamorous race in Formula One for the first time after retiring for five years in a row.

"The last time I finished here was in Formula three, I think it was in 1994 or 1995," the Williams driver said after taking third place behind older brother Michael in a Ferrari and race winner David Coulthard in a McLaren.

"So I am pretty happy to be here today."

Ralf has spoken out regularly against the dangers of driving Formula One cars on Monaco's twisty street circuit and he kept his distance as Michael and his own teammate Juan Pablo Montoya fought for second place.

Montoya, who started on pole, was running second and holding the German off until his engine failed on lap 47.

"I saw he (Michael) was pushing Juan and I just stepped back and thought you never know what the two of them are doing," commented Ralf. "I thought we should have a bit of a gap between ourselves because it looked pretty spectacular what Juan did sometimes, so I was just a matter of time I thought."

Michael, appearing calmly in his first post-race news conference since he was booed at Austria following Ferrari's decision to order Rubens Barrichello to move aside and let him win, was also wary of Montoya.

"It was quite entertaining to watch Juan," the World Champion said. "He was clipping a few barriers, locking up, going sideways. He was overdriving a bit. I actually thought sometimes that he would be so close that he was going to hit something and if I was too close it could be a problem."

For Montoya, after a sensational qualifying lap had brought him a second pole of the season, the race was a disappointment for the second year running. While Ralf ended his run of misfortune, Montoya was sidelined by his engine after crashing on lap two last year.

"I had a bad start and lost the lead but during the race I knew the pace was there and I managed to keep my head together," he said. "I was ahead of Michael and we could have taken away some points from him."

Ralf and Montoya are now both second equal in the Championship, 33 points behind the elder Schumacher.