Formula One: Michael Schumacher held off Fernando Alonso to win the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola today and relaunch his world championship challenge.
The German overcame a mid-race drop in pace to keep world champion Alonso at bay in front of Ferrari's home fans and celebrated by insisting he is now a serious title contender.
Schumacher ended a four-race winning streak for Renault with his first genuine win since 2004 but he denied Sunday's performance was a one-off at a track well suited to his Bridgestone tyres.
Schumacher, who has jumped to second in the championship, 15 points behind Alonso, said: "It feels great - what else can you say? We had an amazing weekend.
"It's been a really big push from everybody and you can see the result. The championship had not really gone away with two difficult races but points-wise it is looking better.
"We were very competitive here all weekend and I think we should be pretty good from now on, honestly. It is very close amongst the top teams. Whoever maximises their performance will be in front."
Schumacher had to fend off a charging Alonso for the second half of the race in a repeat of last season's nerve-jangling climax, but with the roles reversed.
As happened last year, there was no way past for the faster car but Schumacher confessed he had to draw on all his experience to keep Alonso back.
"If you do the job in the right way you don't give a chance to the other driver behind," he added.
Alonso, who celebrated his world championship last year with an improbable overtaking move on Schumacher at Suzuka, admitted even he ran out of ideas.
"It's difficult to overtake if not impossible," the Spaniard said. "Michael didn't make any mistakes. I was on the limit. It was not so easy to be behind him and try to overtake. I really pushed. But I am happy. In normal circumstances and on a normal circuit we would have won the race."
The 24-year-old was content to settle for second, safe in the knowledge that his championship lead has again been stretched.
He eased off in the final few laps after almost throwing his eight points away when he ran wide four laps from the end and added: "This eight points is perfect for me.
"The second in the championship were Kimi Raikkonen and Giancarlo Fisichella and they took only a few points [for fifth and eighth respectively]. Championship-wise it is the perfect result."
McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya stood on the podium for the first time this season after taking advantage of Jenson Button's troubles to claim third.
Button had looked certain to take the final podium spot after a strong start to the race but he suffered a nightmare pit stop which ruined his chances.
He was told to leave his pit before the Honda crew had finished refuelling, ripping the nozzle from the line and spewing fuel over his mechanics.
Button was forced to park in pit lane while mechanics removed the damaged nozzle, losing 20 seconds and leaving him to collect just two points for seventh.
That gave Montoya the chance to nip in for third and the Colombian hopes that signals a return to form for McLaren.
He said: "We did a lot of work over the last couple of weeks. I think we are going in the right direction. We passed a lot of people and had a car to fight for the lead but I was too far behind so it was more about bringing the car home."
Behind Montoya, Ferrari's Felipe Massa equalled his best Formula One result with fourth after running in the top three early on while Kimi Raikkonen was a low-key fifth for McLaren after dropping to 10th at the start.
Mark Webber scored points for Williams with sixth as Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella completed the top eight. Scotsman David Coulthard had a race to forget and retired late in the day with a driveshaft failure.