Schumacher blasts title race wide open

By Alan Baldwin

HOCKENHEIM, Germany (Reuters) – Ferrari’s Michael
Schumacher blasted the Formula One title race wide open on
Sunday with a commanding one-two victory in his home German
Grand Prix.

While the 37-year-old celebrated the 89th victory of his
incredible career, serenaded by air-horns and his jubilant army
of red-shirted fans, Renault’s world champion Fernando Alonso
limped home fifth.

The Spaniard’s overall lead was slashed from 17 points to
11, leaving his championship hopes on a knife-edge with six
races remaining and barely time to breathe before the next
clash in Hungary in a week’s time.

“The next races won’t present any problems for us,” said
Schumacher.

“If we can keep this up, the championship will be really,
really exciting. We hope to have our nose in front at the end.”

Renault’s lead over Ferrari was cut to 10 points in the
constructors’ championship.

In what could be his final race appearance in Germany, with
his manager Willi Weber advising him to retire if he wins the
title, Schumacher took the lead after 10 laps when McLaren’s
Kimi Raikkonen pitted.

The rest was straightforward. Schumacher’s third win in a
row, and fifth of the season, was one of his most important on
what the seven-times champion could only describe as a “superb
weekend.”

On a blazingly hot afternoon, Schumacher and Brazilian team
mate Felipe Massa were in a race of their own as they anchored
the team’s second one-two finish in three starts and tire
partner Bridgestone’s 100th grand prix success.

They crossed the line in close formation, just 0.7 seconds
apart, with Schumacher becoming the first driver to win the
German Grand Prix four times.

JINX ENDED

“We have the edge on the other guys for three races,”
declared Schumacher. “We have to keep this advantage for as
long as we can.

“The numbers are very important but at the moment, probably
the most important is 11. And it’s 11 points left in terms of
the championship lead for Fernando.

“We had a superb weekend, our car just functioned really
great,” he said.

“It’s the right moment in time, where we need to have such
a performance in order to bring down the gap in the
championship and keep pressure on.”

Raikkonen, who had started on pole, was out of sight in
third place and 13.2 seconds behind as he ended a jinx and
finished at engine partner Mercedes’s home track for the first
time in six attempts.

“Bridgestone have a slight advantage, but you could say
we’re up there,” said Mercedes motorsport director Norbert
Haug.

“We’re going on the right way. We were clearly behind
Renault before and now we’re clearly in front of them. We’ll
see what happens now.”

Alonso, who had qualified a disappointing seventh on his
25th birthday, made up two places at the start but then faded
and was never in contention.

He has 100 points to Schumacher’s 89.

The Spaniard would have been staring at his worst result in
almost a year had Australian Mark Webber, wrestling every scrap
of performance from his Williams, not retired eight laps from
the finish while ahead of him.

Alonso also survived a big scare five laps from the end
when he went wide, the car bucking and jumping over the gravel
before he regained the track just in front of Italian team mate
Giancarlo Fisichella.

Briton Jenson Button was fourth for Honda, ending a run of
five races without points.

Fisichella finished sixth, with Toyota’s Italian Jarno
Trulli seventh and Austrian Christian Klien taking the final
point for Red Bull.

Germany’s Nico Rosberg failed to get past the first lap,
crashing his Williams into the tire wall, while Canadian
Jacques Villeneuve also had a crash in the BMW Sauber.