United States Grand Prix: Pain and Glory for Schumachers

Not for the first time this season, early hopes of a challenge to Ferrari's dominance evaporated into thin air yesterday, appropriately in the burning heat of an Indiana summer. Instead, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello scoredanother commanding one-two, speeding the German driver ever closer to a seventh world championship.

BAR's Takuma Sato finished a superb third to claim his first grand prix podium finish, his team-mate Jenson Button having dropped out of that position with technical problems after qualifying fourth behind pole-man Barrichello, Michael Schumacher and Sato.

"We've been supported with huge energy by the Japanese fans in America," a delighted Sato said afterwards. "Today was an important day for me but now we want to win. At one stage I was catching Michael and believed we were really on the pace."

In contrast, it was another disastrous weekend for the BMW Williams team, only a week after their drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya were disqualified from the Canadian grand prix for racing with illegally large brake cooling ducts.

Yesterday's reasons for their retirements were more dramatic, with Ralf Schumacher crashing heavily into the pitlane wall at 165mph. Fortunately the German escaped with nothing more serious than a bruised back.

"Ralf was going to get out of his car but they told him to stay in there as a precaution until attention was summoned," explained his brother Michael. "It was obviously worrying to be there driving round behind the safety car."

Montoya had taken over the spare Williams car prior to the start after his own suffered a technical failure. This contravened the rules because he vacated the grid too close to the start of the parade lap - yet the Colombian was allowed to run until lap 58 of the 73-lap race before being disqualified. Perhaps this extraordinary state of affairs arose out of a desire by the race's promoter and sponsor to allow the former Indy 500 winner to perform in front of his fans.

That a professional driver should be allowed to risk himself in such circumstances, however, was as incomprehensible as the inability of Ferrari's rivals to mount any kind of counter-attack this season. On that score the beleaguered McLaren team were again no more than stragglers, trailing home sixth and seventh. Minardi, on the other hand, were delighted to score their first point of the season courtesy of Zsolt Baumgartner.

At the start, Barrichello had made a copybook getaway while his team-mate neatly steered left to block any chance of Sato coming through from the second row as the pack sprinted toward the first right- hander. The Japanese duly slotted in behind Schumacher, but as they braked Fernando Alonso's Renault speared down the outside from ninth place, roaring around Sato to grab third place with surely the most outstanding start of the season to date.

Back in the pack, a multiple collision eliminated Felipe Massa's Sauber, Christian Klien's Jaguar, Giorgio Pantano's Jordan and the Minardi of Gianmaria Bruni. All four walked away but the safety car had to be deployed as track marshals cleared the circuit of the widely scattered debris.

Upon its withdrawal, Michael Schumacher positioned himself perfectly coming out of the final corner to draught past Barrichello as they stormed down the start-finish straight. The world champion made the move so early, indeed, that it looked as though his Ferrari might have nosed ahead before the cars crossed the start line, which would have incurred a penalty.

As it was, Schumacher led Barrichello by 0.8sec at the end of lap six, with Alonso hard on their tail. Sadly for the spectacle, barely a couple of laps later the Spaniard suffered a right-rear tyre failure when approaching turn one at 200mph, which pitched his Renault sharply into the concrete retaining wall.

Shortly after that, a flurry of waved yellow flags on the final banked corner before the pits was accompanied by a cloud of smoke and debris as Ralf Schumacher spun and then slammed backwards into the retaining wall. The crash was caused by a deflated left-rear tyre, punctured on Alonso's debris.

For the second time the safety car had to be deployed while the official medical car was forced to complete a full lap before stopping alongside the wrecked Williams in which Schumacher was still sitting, clearly shaken but able to reassure his pit crew over the radio that he was in one piece, if winded and very bruised.

Most of the field took the opportunity to pit for fuel and tyres but both BAR-Hondas stayed out, and as a result, when the field was unleashed, Sato and Button ran right up behind Michael Schumacher. The Japanese driver kept his brimming enthusiasm well under control as he shadowed and pressured the world champion for the next few laps. But it did not last.