Schumacher takes championship initiative

The German overcame the 13-race pole jinx to take his fourth victory in
Montreal.

Schumacher notched up his fifth triumph in eight races as he lead Ferrari home to their second 1-2 of the season followed by team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

Chief championship rival David Coulthard was hit by his Montreal misfortunes yet again when he was penalised 10 seconds after stalling on the formation lap grid and battled back to seventh.

Mika Hakkinen threaded his way through the chaos to finish where he started - fourth.

Barrichello took runners-up spot for the second race in succession.

Ferrari notched up an important one-two to build their lead in both the drivers and constructors championship.

Schumacher stretched his lead to a massive 22 points over Coulthard second and Hakkinen a point behind in third with nine of the 17 rounds remaining.

"What didn't work for us in Monaco worked for us here," said Schumacher. "

"I guessed David might get a penalty because they did not leave the grid before the 15 seconds and the team had radioed me.

"But it didn't effect what I was doing. I just drove my race. David wasn't close enough so he didn't have a chance to overtake me.

"When he was gone I took it carefully to make sure I did not make a mistake in the rain.

"There was some kind of worry at the back of the car so I pitted early to have it checked and to be safe. Then I took it easy after that.

"It got really really slippery towards the end."

His only drama after that was a spin at the Senna S bend after the pit
stop.

"Because of the problems at the back we had guessed what to do about it and
put the brake balance completely to the front and I locked up going into turn one.

"The car went sliding straight into the gravel trap so I decided it was such an easy gravel area I would carry on going through it rather that spin the car. But it wasn't really a worry."