Normal service resumes with Schumacher’s sixth victory
The German driver led from his 60th career pole position to claim his sixth win in seven races. His smooth and calculated performance blew away thoughts that Jarno Trulli’s Monaco victory for Renault could herald a challenge to the world champion's domination. And Barrichello completed Ferrari's return to form as he used a two-stop tactic, compared with most other drivers’ three-stop strategies, to climb from his seventh place on the grid to second by the end of the 60-lap race.
Behind the red rout, which saw Schumacher extend his championship lead over Barrichello to 14 points, Briton Jenson Button claimed his fifth podium finish in six races as he came home third for BAR-Honda.
His team-mate Takuma Sato looked set to equal the best finish for a Japanese driver while running strongly in third place. But a desperate lunge on Barrichello and engine failure forced him out late in the race.
Schumacher said: “We did well in qualifying, I had a good start, which was half the race really, and I could get the gap I needed and just drove home really. I think it was not a clean race for Jenson and Takuma did not finish so we don't know what might have been. But we are strong.”
Barrichello added: “I had a good start. But the car was strange after (crashing with Sato) so I was lucky it was okay towards the end. It was a bit amateur of him to do that and I was lucky nothing else broke on my car.”
Trulli finished fourth, ahead of his fifth-placed Spanish team-mate Fernando Alonso, as Renault scored another double finish.
Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, who rolled his Sauber into the barriers in Monaco, finished sixth and Australian Mark Webber secured his second points finish of the season in seventh for Jaguar.
Colombia’s Juan Pablo Montoya claimed the final point after a terrible race saw him knock his Williams team-mate Ralf Schumacher out of the race at the first corner.
Michael Schumacher got away cleanly from pole, but further back Montoya locked his wheels as he tried to avoid Barrichello and crashed into the back of Ralf Schumacher's car as he steered left to avoid a collision.
Schumacher’s car spun around, knocked off Montoya’s front wing and blocked the track, leaving Toyota’s Cristiano da Matta nowhere to go.
Both McLaren’s Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen and Alonso made it past Sato as Schumacher raced to a lead of 2.4 seconds on the opening lap. By lap five, he had an 11.5-second lead as Raikkonen held up the field.
Schumacher, who had chosen to run light in qualifying, pitted on lap eight after setting the fastest lap.
Raikkonen briefly assumed the lead, but relinquished it when he pitted on the following lap and then posted his fifth retirement of the year less than a minute later.
Sato took the lead and was one of the last of the front men to stop, pitting on lap 12 to leave Barrichello ahead for three laps before his first stop put Schumacher back to the front.
By lap 20, Schumacher held a lead of more than 15 seconds over Sato with Barrichello third and Button fourth, having moved ahead of Alonso during the first raft of pit stops.
McLaren suffered a second embarrassing failure in the homeland of their partners Mercedes when David Coulthard retired from the race on lap 27 with a smoking engine.
Barrichello made his second and final stop on lap 38. He came out third, ahead of Button but behind Sato, with both BAR drivers still to make their final stops. Schumacher made his on lap 44 and Sato did the same but could not get ahead of Barrichello.
But Sato threw all his good work away on lap 46 when he made a desperate lunge on Barrichello on the inside of turn one. The pair touched and he was forced to pit for a new front wing at the end of the lap. He came out just ahead of sixth-placed Trulli, but his race ended one lap later when the engine in his car failed.
Button took up the challenge of chasing Ferrari and closed on Barrichello but couldn’t get past him.
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