Schumacher 'Amazed' at Ferrari Strategy

Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher hailed an amazing win at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday as his domination continued with his 10th victory of the season.

Schumacher used a two-stop strategy to defeat McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen as he claimed only his third British Grand Prix win and the 80th of his career to move onto 100 points for the 2004 season.

The German, who won last week's French Grand Prix using a four-stop strategy, was surprised to emerged ahead of quick-starting Raikkonen after the first pitstops but admitted he had the race under control from that point.

"I am amazed how the race went," Schumacher said. "I thought we had a very good strategy for the race but that it would pay off so early was not the plan, leading the race so early basically after my first pitstop coming out in front of Kimi.

"But my car was going so well when I had a free gap and I was able to close the margin so quickly on Kimi that he pulled out, which was phenomenal. When Kimi was behind me I could control it. It was tight in a couple of areas and very interesting."

Schumacher, who won his sixth world title last year from Raikkonen, praised the team work of Ferrari and insisted it is the reason for his success on track this year with his only defeat coming in Monaco.

He admitted that Ferrari learned lessons from a mid-season slump in form in 2003 and claimed the thought of failure is what has driven the Italian giants to their success on track this season.

"It is unbelievable what has happened this year but it pays back all the hard work everybody has done in the factory," he said. "We have never let off in a way. We learned our lesson from last year when we took it a little bit too easy last season but come back.

"And because everyone felt the pain of this, nobody wanted to be back in this pain and everyone has kept pushing. The test team work flat out and you see how hungry they are. It is hard work. We have suffered last year when we almost lost the championship and it was a big push to turn it around in our favour. Since it happened it maybe gave some sort of change in attitude.

"Since that happened, I guess everyone has been motivated. Everyone is so happy because they work so hard, they live for racing and success is their payback. You see the excitement of these guys it is just phenomenal. Everyone wants to keep it as long as possible."