Schumacher Made to Wait for Prost's Record

World Champion Michael Schumacher was forced to wait until the German Grand Prix in two weeks time to try to equal Alain Prost's record for most number of wins after the Ferrari driver was unable to match the pace of Mika Hakkinen, who won his first race in almost a year.

Schumacher, who had scored his eighth pole position of the season on Saturday and who is only one win away from Prost's record, confessed after the race he was not happy with his car.

However, his second place in today's race allowed him to move closer to his fourth crown, especially after the retirement of his rival David Coulthard.

"My car wasn’t really quite the way I would have liked it," said Schumacher, who leads the Championship by a massive 37 points with six races remaining. "The car was not well balanced and I could not get the maximum out of it. My main concern at this point was just keeping the car on the track and when Mika came alongside me there was nothing I could do."

The Ferrari driver, who made only one stop in contrast to Hakkinen's two, claimed after the race that the strategy was not to blame for his defeat.

"The strategy, as always was a joint decision with the team and I don't think a different strategy would have necessarily changed anything," he added, "maybe, if I had been able to keep Mika behind me, we would have had a different result."

"We simply were not fast enough here, but the next race could be different. Whatever the Championship situation, I want to continue winning races."

Teammate Rubens Barrichello recovered well from a poor sixth position in qualifying to finish in the podium for the second time in two races. The Brazilian, as his teammate, was not happy with his Ferrari's handling but was pleased with his result.

"I am happy with this result, because this is my first Formula One podium at Silverstone," said Barrichello. "The car did not really have the balance I like; all weekend it was different to the way it had been at the test. So I was driving carefully, while still trying to be quick.

"Even with the heavy fuel load, I was coping well. The car was good at the exit to Becketts which allowed me to keep the Williams behind me. I managed to keep ahead of Montoya after my pit stop and the car was better on the second set of tyres. At the end, I was able to relax a bit. Two podiums in two races, so I have to be reasonably happy."