Schumacher surprised by France form

The Ferrari driver cruised to his second consecutive victory to keep his momentum going following his win at the United States Grand Prix.

Although it was widely believed that Ferrari's dominant form at Indianapolis would be a one-off, Schumacher proved unbeatable in Magny-Cours, winning from pole position.

"To be honest I wasn't expecting it," said Schumacher on his website on Monday. "We were worried. Because first of all you can never be sure and second of all the conditions were very tough. But everything was perfect in the end.

"I'd like to really thank all our mechanics, but also the engineers that managed to come up with such a good set-up in spite of having so little information."

Schumacher's win allowed him to cut Fernando Alonso's lead in the championship to 17 points.

With seven races remaining, the Ferrari driver still believes he can catch his Spanish rival, but Schumacher is under no illusions about the difficulty of the task, especially with Alonso not needing to win again in order to retain his crown.

"It's a lot of work. From now on we will focus intensely on the 17 points that we need to catch up," added Schumacher. "Of course that will be difficult, of course Fernando and his team have an advantage, but one thing is also for sure: nothing is for sure in Formula One.

"That also means that we can't think we've done it already - the races so far this year have shown very clearly that the smallest things can turn everything around. But we can still be proud of where we're at and we will continue to work in that direction."