Timothy Collings' Race Report - German GP

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello took an emotional first victory in a wet and accident-strewn German Grand Prix on Sunday as Michael Schumacher crashed at the start.

The Ferrari driver's win came after team mate and championship leader Schumacher was shunted out at the first corner for the second race in a row.

The 10 points ensured Schumacher and his Italian team remained ahead of their McLaren rivals at the top of the Formula One standings.

Schumacher has 56 points while world champion Mika Hakkinen -- who finished second -- has 54 and is level with his British team mate David Coulthard, who has won more races.

Ferrari have 102 points to McLaren's 98.

Driving with great skill and judgement in treacherous conditions after Schumacher had collided with Italian Giancarlo Fisichella's Benetton, Barrichello finished 7.4 seconds clear of Hakkinen.

Coulthard finished third just 1.5 seconds ahead of compatriot Jenson Button, in a Williams, who claimed the best result of his fledgling career in fourth place.

Finland's Mika Salo was fifth in a Sauber and Spaniard Pedro de La Rosa sixth in an Arrows

Barrichello's feat in becoming the first Brazilian race winner since his late friend Ayrton Senna in 1993 was all the more impressive since he started 18th on the grid and he was overcome with and emotion on the podium.

After qualifying by the skin of his teeth in Schumacher's hastily-modified car on Saturday, the Brazilian celebrated his first win in 124 races and was embraced warmly by his delighted team mate in Parc Ferme.

"I was just thinking to myself it has to be mine, yesterday was such a bad day and it can be good, so let's make it as simple as possible. I can't believe my eyes," said the tearful Brazilian on the victory.

Safety Concerns

The race was marked by an intruder who crossed the track on lap 24 and forced the safety car to come out for three laps.

The incident, apart from raising serious safety concerns, had a big effect on the outcome of the race.

"It was obviously very, very dangerous," said Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn. "The trouble is the public do have access, particularly at a place like this because it is in the forest.

"That should never be allowed to happen again."

Barrichello's win lifted him to 46 points in the standings after 11 of the year's 17 races.

Schumacher's race lasted only a few hundred metres when for the second successive race he crashed out on the opening lap leaving him pointless for the fourth time in five outings.

At the start, so keenly anticipated because of the high tension between pole sitter Coulthard and Schumacher, the Briton swerved across the track.

That gave Hakkinen an opportunity to slice through into the lead: "It was a fantastic start, something like that doesn't happen often," he said. "This is one of the starts that definitely goes in the record books in my career."

Schumacher attempted to fight his way back but could do no more than steer across the path of Fisichella, who also crashed out at the start of the last Austrian Grand Prix.

Fisichella Blamed

Coulthard shrugged off suggestions that he was deliberately paying Schumacher back for the German's controversial swerving starts in previous races.

"I just put too much wheelspin and I knew I was making a bad start from when I went off the line so I just wanted to try and make it as difficult as we're allowed for someone to pass me.

"I don't actually know how close anyone else was behind me, all I saw was Mika passing me."

Schumacher blamed Fisichella for the incident, rather than Coulthard: "Listen, I am out of the race not because of David. I am out of the race for Fisichella. That is what you can say about it," the German said.

"Fisichella came from behind and he is the person to watch out for cars in front of him...you have to adapt to circumstances and he clearly didn't do that good enough."

Only 11 of the 22 starters completed the 45 lap race, with the Prost of Frenchman Jean Alesi and Sauber of Brazilian Pedro Diniz involved in a big accident on lap 30.