Schumacher praises 'amazing' weekend

It was the seven-times world champion's 85th career success, and seventh at Ferrari's home circuit, but he was harried all the way by Renault's world champion Fernando Alonso.

In a repeat of last year's nose-to-tail thriller only in reverse order, with that race won by Alonso with Schumacher failing to find a way past, the German held on to win by two seconds.

"Great. What else can you say? We had an amazing weekend," said a delighted Schumacher. "We have had a lot of work, we made some mistakes in the past race very obviously and to come here and perform the way we performed...

"Although obviously at some moments there were some struggles, but generally over the weekend we were very competitive."

Schumacher's last victory was at the six-car U.S. Grand Prix last June, a race that turned into a fiasco when all the Michelin teams pulled out before the start.

The German's race, however, was not without problems after he struggled with his tyres during the middle stint.

"We don't know what it is, we have to check the car," he said. "A bit of graining but it never came back and it didn't do what it did at the beginning.

"It was a bit of a struggle but we knew from last year that overtaking is nearly impossible unless you make a mistake and you study who is behind, where are the moments it could get critical, and you prepare for these areas and it worked out."

Schumacher is now second in the drivers' standings, 15 points behind Alonso, but the Ferrari driver reckons the title is still up for grabs.

"It (the title) was not really going away honestly, even with two difficult races," said Schumacher. "But after this race it is looking two points better now and there is a long way to go.