Schumacher gamble pays off

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER admitted his cunning strategy to win the French Grand Prix at Magny Cours today had been his last throw of the dice.

The world champion started second on the gird and trailed behind Renault’s Fernando Alonso in the early stages.

But he thought on his feet and together with Ferrari technical chief Ross Brawn decided to take a risk and move to a four-stop strategy, with all his rivals preferring to pit only three times.

Schumacher confessed he had no chance of passing Alonso on the track and instead preferred an attitude of “no risk, no fun.”

His risk certainly paid off as the German clocked a sequence of fastest laps to put an end to Alonso’s hopes of victory, to such an extent he emerged from his extra stop with a seven-second lead.

Schumacher said: “It was the only option we had. It might have worked out on a three-stop normal strategy but then I would have had to pass on the circuit and that would be difficult, although I had a better top speed.

“Because I had a lighter car and was able to do fast lap times I was able to move in front after the second stop; that was not a surprise because of the strategy we were doing.

“It was really necessary to be in front. For me it was important to get those laps in.

“I wasn’t informed all the time about the gaps but I think five laps before the last pit stop I knew I had it won.

“From that moment on, as I knew I was going faster than Fernando, I thought it should work out.”

Schumacher, whose win today was his ninth from 10 races this season, revealed he had only opted for his daring strategy midway through the grand prix.

After a discussion with Brawn over the pit-to-car radio, the 79-time grand prix winner decided he was in a position to take a risk.

He added: “There was a discussion but it was not much of a discussion because I had nothing to lose today.

“I asked what was happening behind and Ross said we were safe for second position so I said ‘okay let’s go for it.’

“The final decision is normally done by Ross unless I have a particular concern. He has a much better picture than I have and he is the man to decide.”

With Alonso finishing eight seconds behind, the real drama on the last lap came in the battle for third place.

Alonso’s Renault team-mate Jarno Trulli had held the final podium spot throughout but came under intense pressure from Ferrari’s Rubens Barrichello late on.

The Brazilian made a brave overtaking move at the penultimate corner of the last lap to snatch third from Trulli, with Barrichello admitting he had joined his team-mate Schumacher in benefiting from taking a calculated risk.

“I was definitely feeling I had a chance to overtake on the last lap but you have to have second thoughts to save your car because you have to finish.

“It would have been very sad to race from 10th to fourth and then give up, so I tried 85% and when I saw I had a chance I put in another 20 so it was 105%.”

Barrichello was left to rue a hydraulics problem in pre-qualifying which hampered his efforts in qualifying, feeling he could have challenged Schumacher had he not started down in 10th.

“If it wasn’t for the problem we had yesterday we could have qualified a lot better and had a much better race,” he said.

“Having said that I had a lot of fun today, the car was working very well.”

Away from the top four, Englishman Jenson Button finished fifth for BAR after battling with Trulli throughout.

McLaren’s new car heralded a solid result, with David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen sixth and seventh respectively. Juan Pablo Montoya took the last point for Williams with eighth.