Schumacher Celebrates 'Greatest' Day

World Champion Michael Schumacher claimed that his victory in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza was one of the greatest days of his career after ending a three month search for victory.

The Ferrari driver held off the attentions of Williams-BMW rival Juan Pablo Montoya to score his 50th win for Ferrari, the 69th of his career and his fifth of the season to extend his title lead to three points over the Colombian.

The German, whose last win had come in Canada in June, praised the hard work of his Ferrari team following a barren spell and was delighted to send the tifosi wild at Monza.

"There were many things that came together here," Schumacher said. "We have won the race after some tough races where we were not winning or gaining the points we were looking to score.

"We had a summer break and a big push in the team in the factory. Everyone really gave more than 100 percent of work. That was unbelievable. I paid them back a little bit with pole position but I think this is one of the greatest days in my career.

"I am so grateful to everyone in the team. The guys have done a tremendous job, from the test team, in the factory and the lady doing the cleaning job. It is fantastic and I am so in love with all those guys."

But Schumacher admitted that he did have one heart-stopping moment when he emerged from his second pitstop after believing Montoya had somehow got ahead of him.

The Ferrari team also believed the Colombian had pulled off a sensational move, but Schumacher was thankful to learn the car was that of Marc Gene, who was still to make a second pitstop.

"I was on the radio and they said everything should be okay but after the second stop when I came out I was behind a Williams," Schumacher said of the incident, which also caught out technical director Ross Brawn.

"They were shouting at me and I shouted back 'how the hell did he do that?' They were then screaming 'watch out he's coming', but luckily it was Gene."