Michael Schumacher won his first race since August and 13th of the season yesterday by claiming the Japanese Grand Prix in a return to his domineering form.
The seven-time world champion won 12 of the first 13 races with Ferrari, then failed to win his previous three before gaining his 83rd career victory.
PHOTO: AFP
Schumacher was 14 seconds ahead of brother Ralf in a Williams-BMW at the end of 53 laps of the 5.807km Suzuka circuit. BAR-Honda had Jenson Button and Takuma Sato in third and fourth, almost clinching second in the team standings. Fernando Alonso of Renault was fifth.
It was Michael Schumacher's first victory since the Hungarian GP in August, and his sixth at the Japanese GP. Ferrari has won every Japanese GP since 1999 with three different drivers -- Eddie Irvine 1999; Schumacher 2000-2002 and 2004 and Rubens Barrichello 2003.
After clinching the 2004 title with a second at the Belgian GP behind Kimi Raikkonen, the German went winless in three straight races, while Barrichello took the last two.
Schumacher spun in the last two races, but Barrichello's won those two. Ferrari has now won 15 of 17 -- losing only to Kimi Raikkonen and Jarno Trulli.
Barrichello, after a mishap in qualifying that saw him start 15th on the grid, made his way up to sixth before an altercation with David Coulthard on the 39th lap sent them both out of the race.
Schumacher started Sunday's race from pole position after leading Friday's practice in very wet conditions, coming second in pre-qualifying and first in nearly dry qualifying.
It was Schumacher's 63rd career pole position, leaving him two short of Ayrton Senna's record of 65.
After days of rain and a typhoon threat, it was warm and sunny at race time with track temperatures at 33? C.
On the opening laps, both Schumachers pulled away from the pack. Button in third was holding up the rest as he appeared to have had a heavy fuel load for a two-stop race.
Michael Schumacher was only a little concerned about his brother.
"I had Ralf in my mirrors for quite a while," he said.
Michael Schumacher said while it didn't look like it in the early stages, he knew he was comfortably on his way to another victory by mid-race.
"It was pretty clear which way it would go."
At the end of the first six laps, Michael Schumacher had a three second lead over Ralf Schumacher, who led Button by more than seven seconds.
Button had trouble staying close to Ralf Schumacher in the first six laps.
"He put up a huge gap in that first stint," Button said. "The car was very difficult the first six laps of the race. I had lot of oversteer and I was worried about the balance."
On the next lap Button's teammate, Sato, took over third.
After the first round of pits stops the order was the same -- two Schumachers followed by Sato and Button. But Michael had increased his lead to 16.6 seconds at the end of lap 16. Sato was 22.4 back of first.
By 25 laps Michael was 23.6 seconds up on his brother and more than a half minute ahead of Sato.
Barrichello, last year's Japanese GP winner, meanwhile had threaded his way up to seventh. He was challenging Coulthard for fifth when the pair collided and sustained wheel damage.
After the second round of pit stops were completed by the end of 40 laps it was Michael Schumacher in front of his brother by more than 20 seconds. Button regained third over Sato on a two-stop strategy compared to Sato's three.
"The strategies were very very similar in race times, but I went for a two stop," Button said. "I'm used to driving the car when it's pretty heavy."
Raikkonen was sixth for McLaren with Juan Pablo Montoya of Williams seventh.
In the driver standings, with one race to go, Schumacher now has 146 points, Barrichello stays at 108 and Button has 85 with the top three positions for the season already determined.
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