Report: Schuey cruises to victory

Schumacher's first gift of the day was when fellow front row starter Barrichello failed to start the green flag lap due to a gearbox problem.

"I tried pressing every button I could on the steering wheel, and we have a lot of them, but I just couldn't engage first gear," said Rubens, who was forced to retire before the race had started. "It's very frustrating (click here for full story)."

The closest anyone came to Michael all day was his younger brother Ralf, who made a token stab down the inside of the first corner that Schu Snr covered easily. After that, the result was never in doubt as the statistics bear out. He led by 1.5secs at the end of the first lap, by 30secs at half distance and his fastest lap was 1.4secs quicker than the opposition. All this and he was driving his spare car after his race machine developed hydraulic problems in warm-up.

"We were one second ahead in qualifying but it was not 100 percent clear what it would be like in the race," said Schumacher. "But it is simply the right circuit for our car. The new Bridgestone tyres kept their consistency in the race, but I was very careful after the problem which Rubens had."

He backed off massively in the closing stages, and was only victorious by 35.6secs, when it could have been a lap.

The challenge of Williams-BMW faltered when Ralf S ran wide at Campsa just before half distance, and the trip across the grass damaged his car's turning vanes and caused an extra pit stop. His left-front tyre also needed changing, but the mechanics weren't ready, and he slumped to 13th. A final lap engine failure compounded his misery (click here for more).

That allowed Juan Pablo Montoya up to second, but his day wasn't without incident either. At his second pitstop lollypop man, Carl Gaden, appeared to signal he was clear to leave, even though the fuel nozzle was still engaged. Juan-Pablo lurched forwards and ran over Gaden, who had thrown himself under the front left wheel in an attempt to make the Colombian stop.

"He lifted the board," said Montoya. "I tried to pull the clutch as soon as I could when I realised what was going wrong, but I'd already run over him."

Gaden received only bruising to his foot, and Williams technical director Patrick Head said: "He's a hard man, he'll survive. I think his pride is more damaged than his body."

Despite the problem, Montoya kept McLaren's David Coulthard at bay to finish second. Coulthard came through to finish third, taking advantage when Renault's Jenson Button ran into trouble. Button, who was running in the top three, slipped down the order from half distance, firstly with massive understeer and then with a hydraulic problem which caused his car to stick in gear and then shut down in left-hand corners, which eventually forced Jenson out in the final stages (click here for full story).

Coulthard admitted he was fortunate to be on the podium: "I'm only here because other people had problems. I benefited from other people's misfortune and, besides passing Jenson, it was a lonely battle for me."

DC's team-mate, the newly shaven-headed Kimi Raikkonen, got a shock when the rear wing of his McLaren-Mercedes flew off on the pit straight on lap 4, narrowly missing Button. McLaren technical director Adrian Newey said it was a structural failure probably caused by fatigue, and that Coulthard was allowed to continue as his wing had far less mileage than Raikkonen's (click here for full story).

Sauber-Petronas had a great day with Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa finishing fourth and fifth respectively (click here for more). They both benefited from the bad luck that befell Renault, as Jarno Trulli slowed when on course for fourth with more mechanical gremlins.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen scored his and Arrows' first point of the season, the German enjoying a fierce battle in the early stages with the BAR of Olivier Panis. But when the Frenchman went out straight after his second pitstop on lap 43, Frentzen chased down Massa and finished just 1.4secs behind the Brazilian (click here for more).

The second BAR of Jacques Villeneuve finished seventh, ahead of the Toyotas of Allan McNish and Mika Salo, the latter being delayed by an early unscheduled pitstop.

Both Jordans were out of the race by lap 11, as Giancarlo Fisichella suffered hydraulics failure and Takuma Sato crashed out at the final corner. "It was just one of those things," said team boss Eddie Jordan. "We try so hard to turn things around and something like this happens."

Jaguar also suffered another rough day as Pedro de la Rosa spun out of his home race as early as lap two, and Eddie Irvine's diff broke on lap 42 (click here for full story). Neither Minardi started the race due to concern over their wing failures in practice and warm-up.

For full race results, click here.