It was Michael Schumacher winning 10 of 11 races through the British Grand Prix last year. This year the Renaults and McLarens are doing the same.
Juan Pablo Montoya captured his first race for McLaren by taking the British Grand Prix Sunday beating Renault's Fernando Alonso and McLaren teammate Kimi Raikkonen with Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella fourth.
They have divided up the 10 wins this season between Alonso (5), Raikkonen (3), Montoya (1) and Fishichella (1).
PHOTO: EPA
Schumacher's only victory came when the Renaults and McLarens decided not to race over safety concerns of the Michelin tires at the United States Grand Prix.
"We are not up to the level of our competitors." Schumacher said.
"We are not capable of matching the pace of the leaders and the final result is a reasonably accurate reflection of the current pecking order," Ferrari team boss Jean Todt said.
The results show that the McLarens and Renaults are far ahead of the Ferrari. Alonso has comfortably beaten the Ferraris nearly every race this season.
Raikkonen again was penalized 10 spots on the grid and still was able to finish almost a lap ahead of Schumacher.
Alonso's second place still increased his advantage over Raikkonen in the season standings, 77-51. Montoya's 10 points put him at 26 after a frustrating series of races that including races missed due to injury and a black flag.
"This year is not over completely yet. You know the fight between Kimi and Fernando they could take each other off in two races and I've closed the gap," Montoya said. "Things can change so much."
Schumacher knows after coming in sixth
"If you compare our performance from the two North American races to these last two, we appear to be going backward instead of forward," Schumacher said.
"Clearly we are simply not fast enough at the moment," said Schumacher, whose chances to gain his eighth world title are evaporating quickly.
Montoya started third on the grid behind Alonso, who was on the pole. Montoya nearly brushed Alonso going through the first turn. Seconds later at the next corner, he swept by as the Spaniard slowed to avoid a crash.
After four races in less than a month, there is a two-week break before the German Grand Prix.
England's Justin Wilson won a Champ Car race for the first time Sunday, passing Spaniard Oriol Servia with 11 laps to go and then holding on to capture the Molson Indy Toronto.
The race ended under caution on the 2.86km temporary street course when A.J. Allmendinger of the US, Wilson's teammate for the upstart RuSport team, crashed as he was closing in on Servia for second place. Allmendinger brushed the wall then careened across the track into a tire barrier.
Mexico's Mario Dominguez then slammed into Allmendinger's stopped car to bring out a caution with seven laps to go. The race ended when officials were unable to clear the track during the allotted time the series had to finish the event.
"It's hard to believe. The last few laps under caution, I was just hoping it would not go back under green," Wilson said. "I wanted to get the first one under my belt."
Canadian Alex Tagliani finished third and was followed by American Jimmy Vasser and Frenchman Sebastian Bourdais, who overcame an early accident with Paul Tracy of Canada to finish fifth and reclaim the lead in the Champ Car series standings.
Bourdais came into the race trailing Tracy by one point in the standings. Both started on the front row and were poised to battle for the win. But they crashed into each other in a drag race off pit road following the first round of stops.
Bourdais cut his tire when he sliced across the top of Tracy's car and had to make a second stop that eliminated him from contention. Tracy continued on without his left front wing and was leading until he ran out of gas and quit the race.
Bourdais now has a 15-point lead over Tracy, who finished 16th.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has not been having a great season, but things finally seem to be turning around for him. Earnhardt gambled late by changing only two tires, and it paid off in a big way. He won the USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday by 0.291 seconds over Matt Kenseth.
"Right there at the end with only two tires I was worried about it being real tight but the car just took off; it was real fast, as fast as it's been all day," said Earnhardt, who took his first checkered flag in NASCAR's Nextel Cup Series this season and his first in 20 races.
"Of course when you get toward the top three, you know you're going to see a lot more speed out of your car because the air's a little better up there," he said.
Earnhardt pitted after lap 245 under a yellow flag for debris on the racetrack.
Jimmie Johnson, the pole-sitter, finished the 267-lap race in third place, his season-leading eighth top-five finish, and increased his lead in the Nextel Cup standings to 108 points over Greg Biffle, who finished in 11th place.
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