Schumacher ice cool in Brazil

MOTORSPORT: Michael Schumacher took his new Ferrari to victory in the yesterday's Brazilian Grand Prix after a titanic battle with brother Ralf and after Juan Pablo Montoya proved to be the architect of his own defeat.

Montoya had qualified his Williams FW24 on pole for the race the Colombian regards as his home grand prix, but quickly found himself running at the tail end of the field. At the start, the Colombian found himself being pressured by Michael Schumacher, who had qualified second.

Despite a dive towards the inside of the track to protect his position, Montoya went into turn one side by side with the world champion. Schumacher braked hard and Montoya, fighting to control his car, drifted to the outside of the track, thus ruining his entry into turn two.

Passed by Schumacher in that corner, Montoya attempted a swift fightback, using the greater horsepower of his Williams to attempt a move on the long back straight of the Interlagos circuit.

The Colombian misjudged however and clipped the rear of Schumacher's Ferrari. With his front wing removed - it flew back to damage several following cars - Montoya dropped back. He pitted for a new nose cone and rejoined 20th, his tilt at taking victory in as many pieces as the shattered front end of his car.

With Montoya relegated to an attempt to claw his way through the field, Schumacher took over.

Pundits had predicted that in the Michelin-friendly high temperatures of Sao Paulo Williams would dominate. But that was without reckoning on Schumacher's technical nous, his race craft and his innate talent.

The bulk of the Bridgestone runners opted for the safer two-stop strategy which would afford them three sets of that company's soft tyres and hopefully maximise their performance. Schumacher is a better gambler than that and worked a one-stop strategy to perfection, pitting early on lap 38.

His 12-second stop looked too long as his brother Ralf upped his pursuit and reeled off a sequence of fastest laps. Given his heavier initial fuel load and longer stint, it looked like he might overhaul his brother with a shorter stop. But even after Ralf had stopped for just nine seconds, his older brother had held his own pace on new tyres and when the Williams driver re-took the circuit he found himself still some four seconds adrift of the Ferrari F12002.

The younger Schumacher piled on the pressure over the remaining laps, scything through the deficit within a few tours of the bumpy and broiling Interlagos circuit and cutting Michael's lead to 2.9 seconds. From there it was a see-saw conflict that saw the younger Schumacher close to within half a second of his brother only for the Ferrari pilot to stretch his legs on Interlagos' long straights and push out to a second ahead.

In the end it was Michael who took the chequered flag over his brother, who has just four wins to his credit.

"It wasn't that bad with Ralf behind me, honestly," said a nonchalant Michael Schumacher afterwards. "After the pit stop, I knew there was only one place to overtake, into the first turn, so I was making sure to get a good run out of the last corner. The car was pretty much perfect right till the end. It was an exciting first two corners and Juan Pablo behaved really well.

"I thought I could outbrake him into the first turn but he braked so late it was clear he wasn't going to make it."

Ralf Schumacher said his brother had driven a perfect race and that he could find no way past him. "Even Michael makes a mistake some times," said Ralf. "I thought he might brake too late, especially round here, but he didn't do me any favours. It was quite a hard race. The Renaults got past at the start. Jenson (Button) made a mistake, but Jarno (Trulli) was quite difficult to get by."

Indeed, the Renaults of Button and Trulli were the surprise package of the weekend. Both made the customary superb starts, blasting past the McLarens of David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen. But the McLarens' race pace proved too much and Button was soon eclipsed by Coulthard. Trulli proved trickier and it wasn't until their single stops that Coulthard and Raikkonen got past.