Schumacher heads Ferrari 1-2 at US GP

The seven-time world champion beat his teammate Felipe Massa by 7.9 seconds as he took a record fifth win at the Indianapolis circuit and the 87th of his career to cut Fernando Alonso's lead in the world championship to 19 points.

For Massa, second marked the best finish of his Formula One career and he comfortably held off the advances of Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella, who was another 8.6 seconds behind.

For the second year running the start of the race was a chaotic affair. Massa got the jump on his teammate as Alonso picked up two places to lie third.

But the story of the race unfolded in the middle of the pack as seven cars were eliminated in two separate accidents on the first lap.

Juan Pablo Montoya left his braking too late for turn two and hit the back of his McLaren teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

The impact pushed the erratic Colombian into Jenson Button's Honda, whose wheels became interlocked with those of Nick Heidfeld's BMW Sauber, sending the German into a series of spectacular barrel rolls, from which he emerged unscathed.

The accident also accounted for Mark Webber's Williams and American Scott Speed's Toro Rosso, both of whom were collected by wayward McLarens as they tried to take avoiding action.

While all this was happening, Red Bull's Christian Klien tried an optimistic move up the inside of Franck Montagny's Super Aguri, with both machines colliding and retiring on the spot.

Both accidents saw the safety car immediately deployed for the fourth race in a row, but the retirements were not finished as Button was forced to pull his Honda out of the race due to low water pressure.

When racing resumed on lap six, Super Aguri driver Takuma Sato hit the rear end of Midland's Tiago Monteiro's Midland at turn one, damaging both cars and causing Monteiro's retirement on lap nine.

By the time Massa made his first pitstop on lap 29, he and Schumacher had built a nine-second lead over their nearest challenger, who was by then Fisichella, after he overtook his world champion teammate Alonso on lap 15.

That first round of pitstops saw Schumacher crucially jump Massa for the lead, after setting the fastest middle-sector of the race during his 'out-lap' and immediately built a three-second gap to the Brazilian, which he extended throughout the remaining 44 laps of the race.

Behind the podium finishers, Toyota's Jarno Trulli had his best race of the year, using a one-stop strategy to full effect to finish fourth - after starting last in the pit-ane.

Spaniard Alonso took an uncharacteristic fifth after being off the pace all weekend in his Renault.

It should have been one place lower but for Toyota's Ralf Schumacher pulling out of fifth place with 10 laps remaining.

Sixth was Honda's Rubens Barrichello's Honda with David Coulthard seventh for Red Bull - and scoring for the third time in four race.

The final point was fought out between Williams' Nico Rosberg and Toro Rosso's Vitantonio Liuzzi, with Liuzzi eventually forcing his way past Rosberg with 18 laps left to take the team's first championship point.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The US Grand Prix
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, USA;
73 laps; 306.016km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari              (B)  1h34:35.199
 2.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  +     7.984
 3.  Fisichella    Renault              (M)  +    16.595
 4.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  +    23.604
 5.  Alonso        Renault              (M)  +    28.410
 6.  Barrichello   Honda                (M)  +    36.516
 7.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  +     1 lap
 8.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth  (M)  +     1 lap
 9.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth    (B)  +     1 lap

Fastest lap: M.Schumacher, 1:12.719

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)    65
Albers        MF1-Toyota           (B)    38
Villeneuve    BMW-Sauber           (M)    24
Monteiro      MF1-Toyota           (B)    10
Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)    7
Button        Honda                (M)    4
Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes     (M)    1
Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (M)    1
Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes     (M)    1
Webber        Williams-Cosworth    (B)    1
Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth  (M)    1
Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)    1
Montagny      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)    1


World Championship standings, round 10:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Alonso        88        1.  Renault              131
 2.  M.Schumacher  69        2.  Ferrari              105
 3.  Fisichella    43        3.  McLaren-Mercedes      65
 4.  Raikkonen     39        4.  Honda                 32
 5.  Massa         36        5.  BMW-Sauber            19
 6.  Montoya       26        6.  Toyota                16
 7.  Button        16        7.  Red Bull-Ferrari      11
 8.  Barrichello   16        8.  Williams-Cosworth     10
 9.  Heidfeld      12        9.  Toro Rosso-Cosworth    1
10.  Coulthard     10       
11.  R.Schumacher   8       
12.  Trulli         8       
13.  Villeneuve     7       
14.  Webber         6       
15.  Rosberg        4       
16.  Klien          1       
17.  Liuzzi         1       
       
All timing unofficial