Ralf rules to open title race

FORMULA 1 witnessed a Schumacher at his crushing best in France but it was not five-time world champion Michael.

The Ferrari star was comprehensively outpaced on the same Magny-Cours track where he clinched the drivers' crown in ridiculously early fashion last year by younger brother Ralf, who cruised to back-to-back wins for the first time in his career.

Schumacher junior completed a memorable eight days which have shocked the world title aspirations of his more illustrious sibling to the core as he spearheaded a second one-two in a row for Williams-BMW with team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya.

The result has set up a thrilling battle for the drivers' crown in the remaining six races with just 17 points separating the top four drivers.

Reigning champion Michael Schumacher actually extended his lead by one point to eight despite finishing almost 20 seconds adrift in third place for Ferrari because McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen was one spot further back.

But his brother is now just 11 points behind after following up last weekend's victory at the European Grand Prix in Germany while Montoya consolidated fourth spot after taking the chequered flag just over 13 seconds later.

"I still can't believe the last eight days," said the younger Schumacher, who turned 28 last Monday, after the sixth win of his career.

"I have finally done it from pole position. I hope we can keep this momentum going even though we are now going to circuits that are tougher on our car.

"We are definitely getting closer and closer to the Ferrari but for the moment I prefer not to think about our World Championship chances as things can change so quickly in Formula One."

Ralf barely put a wheel out of place after powering away from pole with his only brief moment of concern coming when he drifted onto the edge of the circuit late on.

"There was one little error, a slip-up which I will have a word with him about," said team chief Frank Williams.

"Juan might have slipped through there had he been closer, but Ralf did a brilliant job. He was superb."

Montoya had closed the gap to barely more than a second before his third and final stop but could not get back out in front of his team-mate and backed off in the closing stages knowing overtaking was impossible and his Ferrari rival was too far away to be a threat.

Michael Schumacher admitted his Ferrari team have to get their act together before the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in two weeks' time although there is only this week's final test to discover what has gone wrong.

The 34-year-old's so-called supercar was never on the pace of the Williams or the McLarens of Raikkonen and David Coulthard, and he spent much of the race in fifth place.

Schumacher only got back into third spot after the McLarens hit heavy traffic and Coulthard was delayed at his final stop when he dragged his refuelling man to the ground following a problem with the rig.

"We need to be concerned," admitted Schumacher, whose hopes of a record-breaking sixth title this year are no longer guaranteed.

"We can see what Williams are doing but we will work very hard to get our act together and improve the situation. We will just keep our concentration. We know what we have to do.

"We realised earlier in the weekend that we were not going to be as competitive here as we had expected so third place was probably the best I could do."

"We are definitely not going through a crisis. I have extended my championship lead over Kimi and I am confident we can put an end to this current run of poor results."

Raikkonen took fourth spot despite having no rear brakes in the final laps with McLaren 'advising' Coulthard not to overtake his team-mate in the first tacit admission that the Scot is now playing the support role.

Jaguar's Mark Webber was sixth while Brazil's Rubens Barrichello finished seventh despite spinning into last place at the end of the first lap to help keep Ferrari just three points ahead of Williams in the constructors' championship.

Olivier Panis was eighth while Justin Wilson (Minardi) was 14th with Jordan's Ralph Firman 15th. Jenson Button's French frustrations were completed when he ran out of fuel.