JACQUES VILLENEUVE regained the world championship points lead with a mature and measured drive to victory in the Spanish Grand Prix yesterday. In a tactically complex race, Villeneuve was helped immeasurably when Michael Schumacher catapulted his Ferrari through into second place, at the first corner, after making a brilliant start from seventh on the grid.

Schumacher came to the Circuit de Catalunya knowing that there was precious little chance of repeating his Monaco victory, even less his dazzling triumph at Barcelona 12 months ago, when he scored what is regarded as the best win of his career. Instead, he opted for a damage limitation exercise by running on brand new tyres and a light fuel load from the start in order to make up as many places as possible.

"I knew from testing that Michael would have trouble with his tyres and would have to do three stops," said Villeneuve. "We opted for a twostop strategy which I knew would be risky on my own tyres, but on a three stop strategy you have to drive like a maniac to keep the lead all the time.

By the time Schumacher made his first stop for fuel and tyres at the end of lap 14, Villeneuve was already 16 seconds ahead and the battle, as such, was effectively at an end.

With tyre wear problems also handicapping David Coulthard's McLaren, which ran third in the opening stages, Olivier Panis steadily worked his way through the field to finish a strong second in the Bridgestone shod Prost Mugen Honda. It was the best result for the Japanese tyre company in their first F1 season and Panis's best finish, of the year which moves him into third place in the championship.

Pan is almost lost his second place when he came up to lap Eddie Irvine's Ferrari in the closing stages of the race. Irvine held Panis up, allowing Jean Alesi's Benetton and more significantly - Schumacher's Ferrari to pull right on to his tail.

There was no suggestion that Irvine was responding to any team orders in an effort to help his teammate, but the Northern Irish driver was given a 10 second stop go penalty for blocking and Pan is later offered a brisk criticism of his rival's behaviour.

"It was just incredible trying to overtake Eddie," he said, "and it is very difficult to speak with this man, even though he obviously saw the blue (overtaking) flags. But perhaps he didn't see them, or maybe he has a problem with his eyes.

Being held up in close traffic also resulted in a secondary problem for Panis, who had noticed his oil temperature gauge flickering ominously each time he got close to another car. Once ahead of Irvine, and running in clear air, Pan is pulled away to consolidate his position and had no further problems.

Alesi's Benetton eventually beat Schumacher's Ferrari across the line by 5.4 seconds to take third place, while Johnny Herbert's Sauber nipped ahead of David Coulthard's McLaren on the last lap to take fifth place.

"I had seen that David was locking up his front brakes going into the sharp hairpin," said Herbert. "On the last lap we went side by side into the corner before that, because I was deliberately trying to make him push too hard and overshoot the hairpin. That's what he did and I'm really pleased to come through from 10th to fifth without anybody ahead of me dropping out."

Acute tyre wear problems blunted Coulthard's chances, the Scot's hopes riding high after qualifying his McLaren third, less than a second slower than Villeneuve's Williams in pole position. In doing so he benefited from an impressive new Mercedes V10 engine which also enabled his teammate Mika Hakkinen to record the fastest straight line speed of the weekend at 312 kph.

However, McLaren opted not to use the new engine in the race, preferring to hold its debut back until further testing has been completed, but Coulthard still looked a strong contender up to his first tyre stop, after which he gradually dropped away from the leading group.

For Villeneuve, it was a truly outstanding tactical performance, in which he conserved his tyres on a high grip track surface which is unusually abrasive. In 1981 his late father Gilles scored a spectacular Spanish Grand Prix victory at Madrid's Jarama track where his uncompetitive Ferrari won by less than a second.

On this occasion, the son certainly enjoyed a much better car, but Jacques Villeneuve certainly applied just as much brain power in achieving what was certainly one of the most impressive victories of his 16 month grand prix career.