There was hope for Michael Schumacher's rivals on Sunday. It lasted for eight laps.
British revelation Jenson Button took advantage of his first pole position to lead the San Marino Grand Prix for about 10 minutes. Then the BAR Honda driver went in for his first pit stop.
When Button came back out, Schumacher was in front flying around the Enzo and Dino Ferrari circuit at an unrivaled pace. Two laps of near-perfect driving followed until Schumacher brought his Ferrari into the pits.
PHOTO: EPA
A 7.8-second stop by Schumacher beat the 9.7 seconds that Button's team had taken and the lead never changed hands again.
Schumacher's win was his fourth in the season's first four races and the first when he had to come from behind. In the first three races this season, Schumacher started from the pole and led virtually start to finish.
"At the start, Jenson set a mind-blowing pace; it was as though I was driving in the wet and he was in the dry," Schumacher said. "But after a few laps, everything came up to temperature and I was able to push."
Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn explained further: "You could see in the first few laps that our tires took a while to come to temperature and when they did, they were fantastic," he said.
"We just had to be patient and wait for the right moment, with Michael hanging onto Jenson for the first few laps. We hoped that he would stop before we did and that was what happened. Then Michael did two stunning laps before his pit stop which saw him move into the lead. After that it was a case of monitoring everyone else's strategy," Brawn said.
The end result was Schumacher's 74th career victory and sixth at Imola.
"This was a dream result, to come home after three races and give the tifosi [fans] what they wanted," Schumacher said, referring to his victories in Australia, Malaysia and Bahrain before opening the European season with yet another triumph.
Button finished second for his best career result, 9.702 seconds behind Schumacher's winning time of 1 hour, 26 minutes, 19.670 seconds.
Williams-BMW's Juan Pablo Montoya came in third, 21.617 seconds back, after losing a wheel-to-wheel battle with Schumacher on the first lap in which each driver's car was nearly pushed off the track on separate occasions.
That battle left Montoya fuming and enabled Button to establish about a one-second lead ahead of Schumacher, who started second. The 24-year-old driver kept the lead for the first eight laps, then went into the pits.
"It was when we got out the new tires that we started to struggle a little," said Button, who finished third in Malaysia and Bahrain for his best previous results.
"We all know the pace of Ferrari at the moment is untouchable in the race."
Renault drivers Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli finished fourth and fifth, respectively, and Schumacher's Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello came in sixth.
Barrichello's hold on second place in the driver standings was reduced to just one point ahead of Button. Schumacher leads with a full 40 points, followed by Barrichello (24), Button (23) and Montoya (18).
In the constructor standings, Ferrari (64) has more than twice as many points as its nearest rival, Renault (31). BAR Honda (27) and Williams-BMW (27) come next.
Williams-BMW's Ralf Schumacher -- Michael's brother -- came in seventh after losing out on a battle 12 laps from the end with Alonso that caused him to spin around and drop several spots.
Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren-Mercedes came in eighth for his first finish this year after coming in second to Schumacher in last season's final standings. The Finnish driver was forced to start last after changing engines after qualifying and did well to make the top 10.
Schumacher made a slight mistake at the end of his qualifying lap, opening the way for Button's first pole and raising hope among the rest of Formula One that Ferrari could be beaten on its home track.
The hope ended shortly after the first round of pit stops, when Schumacher established a five-second lead. By the later stages of the race, the six-time champion was leading by nearly 30 seconds before slowing down in the final laps to avoid problems.
Montoya's problems began in the first lap with Schumacher and he was still angry after the race was over for the way the German driver nearly pushed him off the track.
"It's very disappointing to see racing like that," Montoya said, adding that Schumacher had to be "blind or stupid" not to see him.
Schumacher responded saying "it was just a racing incident."
"It was difficult to keep him behind me and obviously I wanted to avoid him getting by," he said. "At first, I saw him attack me, but then I did not see him, nor did I expect him to come round the outside."
Schumacher's average speed was 212.405kph in 62 laps around the 4.933km layout.
The race was held under mostly sunny skies in much cooler weather than experienced in Friday's practice and Saturday's qualifying.
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