Report: Barrichello wins European GP

Barrichello shot off the line at the start and was ahead of his team-mate going into the first corner. Ahead of him the Williams drivers were battling each other, which compromised Juan Pablo Montoya's exit speed from the hairpin. The Ferrari simply out accelerated the Williams and soon after Barrichello was diving out from behind the rear wing of Ralf Schumacher to take the lead into the Ford Kurve.

As their warm-up pace had indicated, the Ferraris were running a two-stop strategy, while Williams and McLaren were going down the one-stop route. Ferrari's gamble meant they had top establish an early lead and Schumacher followed his team-mate's lead, forcing his way past Montoya into the Veedol chicane at the end of the first lap, and when Ralf obligingly left the door open at RTL, Ferrari's were running one-two.

From that point on they simply destroyed the field, lapping as much as two seconds a lap quicker than the chasing pack. The Williams drivers were struggling for grip from their Michelin tyres and a train of cars built up behind Montoya in fourth.

At the head of the field the leading pair traded fastest laps, but Barrichello was never more than 1.5s up on the world champion. That was until lap 23, when Schumacher made an uncharacteristic error and spun on the exit of the left hand RTL Kehre. It was an innocuous spin, which he soon corrected, but it cost him 10 seconds and any chance of passing his team-mate in the pits.

"I felt I got too close to Rubens' rear wing and lost downforce and that's why I spun," he said. "I lost time being held up by backmarkers after my second stop, but I'm not sure it made any difference. Rubens drove a superb race and he deserved to win."

Barrichello had indeed driven faultlessly, lapping consistently and quickly and carving his way confidently through traffic. It has been almost a year his emotional win at Hockenheim and although there were no tears on the podium this time his delight in the moment was obvious.

"It was a fantastic race," he said. "It was very close at the start I had a good line out of T1. I saw the two Williams fighting it out and I saw a gap and I went for it. I was able to take Ralf quite quickly and from then it was a fight between me and Michael up until the last 10 laps when we decided to back off."

Behind the Ferraris raged a terrific scrap for third. In the early stages Jenson Button and Jarno Trulli were harrying Kimi Raikkonen for the final points scoring place. A mistake by Trulli into T1 sent him scurrying over the gravel and dropped him back to 12th. A great fight back saw the Italian overtake Olivier Panis and the duelling Saubers of Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa over the course of four laps, but in contrast to the cars ahead of them both Renault drivers were on a two-stop run and they dropped out of contention for the podium as the race unfolded.

So too did Montoya and David Coulthard. After his fine pole position Montoya's race was a massive disappointment. From the start he struggled with his tyres and never looked capable of winning. Coulthard tried many ways to overtake but found the Colombian in obdurate mood. On lap 28 he got alongside the Williams on the outside of T1. Montoya was taking a tight inside line, but hooked his rear wheel over the kerb and lurched into a spin.

As the FW24 started to rotate his left rear whacked the front right of the McLaren. Both cars sustained suspension damage and their race was over. That paved the way for Kimi Raikkonen to challenge Ralf Schumacher and with his Michelins working much better for him, the Finn was able to produce a string of quick laps following Ralf's pitstop and emerged in third place when he rejoined after his own stop.

Button's two-stop race brought him fifth place and his first points since Spain, while Felipe Massa won the Sauber battle to take sixth. It was a race a remarkable few retirements, so Enrique Bernoldi did a great job to rise from 19th on the grid and 10th, just behind Olivier Panis who made the flag for the second race in a row.

It was a nightmare race for Jordan. In his 100th GP Giancarlo Fisichella made the worst possible start by hitting team-mate Takuma Sato in the first corner. Both of the yellow cars pitted for repairs, Sato losing a lap, while Fisichella complained that he car was undriveable. With Sauber increasing its points tally to nine, a 16th place finish was not what Jordan needed from this GP.

Schumacher's second place means his lead in the championship is 46 points, making him champion in all but name. Ralf is up to second, while Rubens is tied with Coulthard for fourth a point behind Montoya, who has now gone three races without scoring.