Schumacher denies title battle is over

With team-mate Rubens Barrichello retiring before the start, Schumacher was unchallenged at the Barcelona track. He pulled away at around a second a lap from Ralf Schumacher and eventually ran out a comfortable winner, 35 seconds ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams-BMW.

The Colombian was not able to offer any challenge to the Ferrari and the measure of Schumacher's superiority could be judged by a fastest race lap that was fully 1.38s faster than anything Montoya could manage in the race.

But when he was asked if he thought the championship was effectively over after just five races, Schumacher said: "You can't say that. We were almost a second clear in qualifying and this is one of the circuits where we expected to have an advantage. But Brazil was only two races ago and both teams had the same cars there and it was a very close battle.

"We will face stiff challenges as the season goes on and it is important to win races like this when you think you should have an advantage."

But BMW motorsport boss Gerhard Berger made it clear that he believes the Williams drivers now have no chance of taking the crown. Montoya lies 21 points behind Schumacher, with Ralf a further three behind.

"Forget the drivers' championship, there is no chance," said Berger. "I think we have an outside chance in the constructors' championship, but not a real chance." Williams is only seven points behind Ferrari in the title chase.

Schumacher raced the T-car in Spain after experiencing a hydraulic problem in the race morning warm-up. He even had time to back off in the closing stages to watch the fifth-place battle between Felipe Massa and Heinz-Harald Frentzen. "It was quite interesting, actually," Michael grinned...