FORMULA 1: If in-car stereo systems came as standard on Formula One, Michael Schumacher's march to victory here at Silverstone yesterday would surely have seen him slipping a CD of Ella Fitzgerald singing Come Rain or Come Shine. Two places back, Juan Pablo Montoya would have been desultorily slipping a tape into the deck of his under-performing Williams and singing mournfully along with Bob Dylan warbling This Wheel's on Fire.

That was the story of this year's British Grand Prix. Schumacher dominant when the rain fell early on on wet tyres and commanding on Bridgestone dry rubber when the downpours ceased and the sun finally came out to shine on his seventh victory this season.

Montoya, by contrast, was lumbered with troublesome Michelins, wet or dry, that almost had the Colombian laughing in resignation into his car-to-pit radio as Schumacher blasted past him following dogged but hopeless defensive manoeuvres after 15 laps.

After Saturday's electric qualifying session, it looked like it might be different. Schumacher, never entirely comfortable at Silverstone - the scene of his 1999 accident in which he broke his leg - struggled to find a workable set-up and had to push hard to take third place on the grid for yesterday's race.

Montoya, meanwhile, was tweaking and fine-tuning his Williams to a stunning, last-ditch pole-winning lap, pushing Rubens Barrichello out to second with the very last lap of the session.

But that was false promise, an expectation dictated by the superb qualifying tyres Michelin have built for their partners recently and which have allowed Montoya to claim four poles in a row. The race, the sages nodded mystically, would be different.

And so it was. Ten laps from a start in which Montoya had held the lead into the first turn, Copse, the Colombian was still fighting off Schumacher attacks from second.

Five laps later, and now on rain tyres to combat the worsening conditions, Montoya was still there. But the doomsaying sages were now gabbling amongst themselves that the end of Montoya's world was nigh. And how right they were.

Schumacher took his advantage in the Priory-Brooklands complex. Montoya, unable to keep his Michelins focused on the asphalt, slid wide and Schumacher was through.

On the radio back to his team on the pit wall, Montoya could be heard to chuckle at the greater pace of the Ferrari and in acceptance of defeat.

"It was a crazy race," said the Colombian, "because of the changing weather conditions. My start wasn't too bad and I could keep Michael behind me for a while, but then he passed and really started to get away.

"Then the rain came and decided the race, as we could not keep pace on our tyres. We have massively improved in the wet but there's lots more work to do."

After Schumacher, it was Barrichello's turn. Despite stalling on the grid and having to start from 21st, the Brazilian drove a simply storming race, rising to 12th by the third lap, fourth by lap 15 and then got to within striking distance of second-placed Montoya on lap 18.

Once again, Montoya was forced to watch as Barrichello swept past out of Luffield and through the flat right-hander of Woodcote. Montoya had a stab back as they came towards the end of the pit straight, but, revealingly, he was forced to brake some 50 metres earlier than Barrichello as the pair slowed for the turn.

Montoya was not to be denied so easily. He closed on Barrichello after the Brazilian had a minor spin, and the Ferrari number two must have been briefly shocked when the Williams man retook second after a round of pit stops for dry tyres in which Montoya fared better. But the shock was all too brief.

Friendship between drivers often translates into the toughest of racing on circuit, and the two South Americans were no exception; seven laps later Barrichello was back in charge, storming past Montoya to claim his rightful place behind his team leader.

From there, as the gaps widened in the dry, there was no hope for Montoya and the three took the chequered flag in the order established by Barrichello's last overtaking move on Montoya.

Afterwards, Schumacher acknowledged that his second Silverstone win - his first came in 1998 - was down to the tactical nous of Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn.

"I'd like to thank Ross, who made the decision on when to come in," said the world champion. "I wanted to stay out but Ross made the right choice and we were on top from there."

Schumacher now sits on 86 drivers' championship points, with the nearest challenger being his team-mate, Barrichello, on 32. The 54-point gap means that the defending world champion could wrap up a record-equalling fifth world championship title at the French Grand Prix in two weeks, though Schumacher admitted it would be tough and that he would prefer the title to come a further two weeks on when he visits home soil and Hockenheim.

"Well, it's pretty tight," he said. "If Rubens or Juan would be second it would not be done, and to be honest I think it would be much nicer to win the title at Hockenheim."

With the podium places wrapped up, the lower points positions should have gone to either of the McLaren drivers or to Williams' Ralf Schumacher. But a catalogue of disasters visited both teams and dropped their drivers out of contention.

David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen, running in the top six in the early stage, were both left stranded in their pit lane slots when they visited for wet tyres when the rain began to fall. Coulthard's crew were left searching for a right front while Raikkonen was shown to be missing a left front.

Then, after Coulthard had dropped to 10th, he erred strategically by choosing to come in for dry tyres just minutes before the rains came again. His crew erred, too, once again leaving the Scot waiting while they left him without a right front again. That dropped him to 16th and his race was run.

The final nail in McLaren's Silverstone coffin came when Raikkonen's engine blew in the closing stages.

Ralf Schumacher, too, suffered from pit-stop chaos when his fuel rig failed and the German was stranded for 29 seconds. That spelled the end of his contention.

It did, however, allow long-suffering BAR to sneak in, and the team who have laboured through nine races with no points finally scored, with their pairing of Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis remaining both quick and cool to take fourth and fifth.

The mishaps to McLaren and William just didn't fall right for Jordan, however, with their drivers having qualified too far back to benefit. A disastrous qualifying session saw Giancarlo Fisichella start from 17th and Takuma Sato from 14th, and despite battling races by the pair, they were just too far beyond the points action to profit from the McLaren-Williams debacles.

Fisichella had a tough battle with Sauber's Nick Heidfeld for sixth in the closing laps, but it was the Sauber man who took the points, leaving Fisichella to rue the missed opportunity that was qualifying.

"Seventh place is alright," said Fisichella. "It would have been fantastic to score points today. I drove well, however, with hard dry tyres. I had low grip levels, it was slippery and the car was nervous. It was not easy but I did my best and the team did very well too. Starting from 17th today was our problem."

Eddie Jordan admitted it was frustrating but wished for better things in the future.

"We had a chance for points today and Giancarlo and Takuma both drove really well," said the Jordan chief executive. The difficulty for Jordan is that now BAR have garnered five points from one race, which puts their Honda rivals just a point behind the Irish team as the pair duel through the latter half of the season. Jordan, already on borrowed time with Honda, will now be casting more nervous glances over their shoulders.