Report: Schu wins US GP

In what was easily the most frenetic race of the season, drama had already hit Indianapolis before the drivers had even covered their formation lap. With the cars just seconds away from leaving the grid on their warm-up lap, Williams team members were still crowded around the car of Juan Pablo Montoya which engineers had failed to start after a piece of the starting mechanism broke and fell out.

The Colombian jumped out of his car and sprinted across the track to the T-car sitting in the Williams garage. He started the race from the pitlane in a spare car which had not been nominated to race by the team - an infringement of the rules which was later to be penalised with a black flag from the FIA, albeit late on in the race.

A crash between the first and second corners on the opening lap seemed to dictate the flavour of the rest of the race. Toyota's Cristiano da Matta came off the throttle to avoid his team-mate Olivier Panis only for Jaguar's Christian Klien to go up the back of the Brazilian. A domino effect ensued with Felipe Massa (Sauber) and Giorgio Pantano (Jordan) becoming embroiled in the carnage. Minardi's Gianmaria Bruni also stopped at the same corner although it was not clear if he had a problem or if he too was a victim of the incident.

There was enough debris on track for the Safety Car to be deployed while marshals cleared the track. It gave the drivers time to take stock, particularly Renault's Fernando Alonso who probably could not believe he was sitting in third from ninth on the grid after an awesome move around the outside of BAR-Honda's Takuma Sato following a lightning start. Renault team-mate Jarno Trulli, who started from the back of the grid following a gearbox problem in final qualifying, made an equally impressive getaway to launch himself up to 11th.

Second placed Schumacher was not only taking stock, he was also psyching himself up for what would be an inch-perfect manoeuvre around race leader Rubens Barrichello when the Safety Car drew into the pits at the end of lap four. Two years ago Schumacher got it all wrong when he crossed the finish line on the start-finish straight when he eased off too soon to accidently gift Barrichello victory. This year though his judgement was sublime as he got it perfectly right - by a miniscule 0.02s in fact - allowing his team-mate to cross the line just before he carried out his move - as the rule book demands following a Safety Car period.

"The nature of the circuit here is that the Safety Car switches off its lights in the last sector," said Schumacher. "Then you don't have much time to prepare yourself to get things right. The long straight, which allows you to slipstream as I did with Rubens, allows you to pass."

In his defence Barrichello said: "It was a little bit confusing. At that time I was right behind Michael, and I was focused on getting past him. On the restart I had a lot of wheelspin which allowed Michael to take the slipstream and get past. On the banking it was difficult to keep it flat-out because the car was bottoming out with the [tyre] pressures being so low, so I had no chance to defend.

The messy show continued soon after the restart with Renault's Fernando Alonso crashing head-first into the wall on the start-finish straight following a right-rear puncture on lap eight. The Safety Car remained in the pits but just a lap later was deployed once again after Williams' Ralf Schumacher suffered a horrific crash on Turn 13 leading onto the start-finish straight.

It seemed the German suffered either a puncture or rear suspension failure as he lost control of the FW26 going into the final corner. Fortunately he hit the wall backwards, but it was a big enough impact to knock him senseless and send him sliding up the start-finish straight with debris strewn everywhere. The Jaguar of Mark Webber only just missed him.

While the Williams driver waited for what seemed an eternity for the medical team to reach him, most drivers dived into the pits to collect fuel and change tyres while the Safety Car was being deployed. The two BAR's of Sato and Button, the Williams of Juan Pablo Montoya and McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen were the only drivers not to stop during the SC period, losing them precious time later in the race.

Schumacher emerged in the lead but concern mounted not only for Ralf, but for the driviers who were forced to weave through the carnage of his car as well as watch the German being attended to by the doctors. He was taken to the medical centre and later onto the local hospital where he underwent x-rays and a CAT scan, standard procedure for any drivers who have been knocked out, particularly Ralf who suffered a severe concussion just a year ago in testing. He is expected to stay in hospital for several days, according to team boss Frank Williams.

With the race underway nine laps later, Schumacher was quick on the gas leading Sato (BAR), Button (BAR), Montoya (Williams), Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren) and team-mate Barrichello, who had slipped behind those who didn't pit after being forced to wait for Michael to complete his stop.

Schumacher quickly came under pressure from a chasing Sato who had the advantage of lighter fuel as he didn't pit under the Safety Car. On lap 23 the Japanese driver relinquished the fight and came into the pits, rejoining the race down in 10th and stuck in traffic leaving the team kicking themselves that they hadn't brought him in earlier.

But the next few laps were to be Sato's finest as he scythed his way through the pack dispensing with David Coulthard (McLaren) first and then tackling Giancarlo Fisichella (Sauber) and Nick Heidfeld (Jordan) to emerge in seventh. With movement in the pits from those in front of him he soon found himself behind fourth-placed Olivier Panis (Toyota) who he took no thanks to some scary driving from the Frenchman which could have had a nasty ending.

Meanwhile Schumacher had made his second stop causing Barrichello to put in a string of quick laps to try and overtake his team-mate in the pits. It wasn't enough as he emerged just seconds behind the German but on fresh tyres he saw his chance and pounded his heels. At one point the Brazilian looked to have got him only for Schumacher's chopping skills to come to the fore slamming the door shut on Barrichello.

Unchallenged for the remainder of the race Schumacher notched up his eighth win of the season, who was understandably more concerned that his brother was not seriously injured.

"Obviously the most concern I had was seeing Ralf sitting in the car for so long. I thought 'Oh please, don't let it be anything bad'," said the German. "The worst thing was seeing him there for so long. They kept telling me [over the radio] that things weren't too bad and everything was alright, but I've heard this many times in the past and then found out differently afterwards. As far as my information is concerned, Ralf is well and that's all that matters."

Sato took advantage of a mistake from Trulli to take third place joining the two Ferrari drivers on the podium but the Renault driver will no doubt be delighted with fourth after starting at the back of the grid.

With Montoya being disqualified for the second race in succession, Toyota's Panis moved up to fifth, the team's best result of the season, while the McLaren duo of Raikkonen and Coulthard both managed to bring their MP4-19 home in sixth and seventh respectively in what is probably the car's last race. The remaining point went to Zsolt Baumgartner, no doubt to the ecstasy of the Minardi team. The points scorers were the only drivers left on track on what was the highest retirement rate of the season.

Sauber's Fischella and Jordan's Heidfeld both retired while in the points, as did Jaguar's Mark Webber whose engine blew at the end of lap 59. BAR's Button retired for the first race this season with a gearbox problem while da Matta drew to a halt with gear selection problems.