Whirlwind display puts Schu back on track
Fears of devastation from Typhoon Ma-on caused qualifying to be postponed on Saturday. But the storm missed the circuit and left Schumacher free to stage his own whirlwind display under blue skies on race day.
The German driver tore apart the opposition to take a unique one-day double as he claimed his 13th victory of the season, having secured his eighth pole position of the year earlier in the day. His victory also gave world champions Ferrari a record-equalling 15th win of the season to leave them needing one more victory, in the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix, to break the record they hold jointly with McLaren.
“It was pretty clear to us that we would have a strong race pace. I was pretty confident we could do it after getting the pole position,” Schumacher said.
Schumacher led every lap on his way to ending a personal lean spell of three races without a win. He enjoyed a double celebration as his brother Ralf claimed his first podium of the season with second for Williams-BMW.
Ralf said: “The car worked well and the team did a great job. We had the right strategy for us and it has been a good weekend.”
Britain’s Jenson Button finished third to take his tenth podium of the season for BAR-Honda after using a two-stop strategy to prevent his Japanese team-mate Takuma Sato from claiming a podium finish in front of his home fans.
“I went for the two-stop because it worked very well at the last race and I’m used to driving the car when it is pretty heavy,” Button said. “It went well, but compared to these two (the Schumachers) we were quite a way off in the end.”
Sato finished fourth, just ahead of Spanish Renault driver Fernando Alonso, to enable BAR extend their lead over Renault in the chase for second place in the world championship to 16 points, with 18 remaining. Finn Kimi Raikkonen claimed sixth place for McLaren-Mercedes with Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya seventh in the second Williams and Italian Sauber driver Giancarlo Fisichella rounding out the points scorers in eighth.
Schumacher made a clean getaway from pole and sprinted into the first corner to leave his brother Ralf trailing behind as Button got the better of Sato off the line to claim third.
Schumacher’s team-mate Rubens Barrichello started in 15th after a poor qualifying session. He gained just one place at the start and failed to make progress through the field.
At the front, Schumacher gently increased his advantage over the Williams behind him in second to 2.7 secs after lap five, with Button and Sato third and fourth and Italian Jarno Trulli fifth in the Toyota.
Ralf Schumacher pitted early, at the end of lap nine, to leave his brother 17.2 secs ahead of Sato, who had moved back past team-mate Button on lap seven and briefly held second before he pitted at the end of lap 12.
Schumacher set two fastest race laps before his stop on lap 13 and got out ahead of Button, who was yet to stop. He eventually pitted on lap 15 to promote Ralf Schumacher back up to second. Fisichella slid off at Spoon Curve and continued. Australian Mark Webber, who qualified in an impressive third place, saw delight turn to despair when he was forced to retire his Jaguar with 22 laps completed.
The lead order remained the same after the second series of pit stops, with Schumacher ahead of his brother Ralf by 28.5 secs and Sato in third, 16.8 secs further behind. German Jordan driver Timo Glock had a minor spin and continued at the Degner Curve on lap 38. But Barrichello and Scot David Coulthard, of McLaren, were not so lucky and both retired one lap later after a collision.
Minardi driver Zsolt Baumgartner became the fourth retirement of the race on lap 45. But there were no such problems for Schumacher as he cruised to the finish.
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