Schumacher takes early control

World champion Michael Schumacher blasted his way into the lead at the start of the 73-lap United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis today.

Schumacher, starting the race from pole for the third successive year, powered away from Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello to launch his bid for an 11th win this season.

Britain’s David Coulthard held onto his third place on the grid though at the end of lap one was over two seconds adrift of Schumacher.

But the race soon turned into another nightmare for the Williams-BMW team as Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher collided.

Colombian Montoya tried to overtake Schumacher on the outside at the start of the second lap but the German – refusing to concede fourth place – spun and sent both skidding into the grass.

Schumacher lost his rear wing in the collision and dropped to last as he came in for repairs while Montoya slipped to seventh.

The race quickly became another display of Ferrari domination with Schumacher senior opening up a lead of 1.1 seconds over his team-mate after seven laps.

Coulthard, who has finished in the points in both previous grands prix at Indianapolis, was still third but almost seven seconds down.

The gap between Schumacher and Coulthard was almost 10 seconds after 10 laps with Jarno Trulli fourth for Renault followed by Kimi Raikkonen in the other McLaren.

Raikkonen looked to be struggling as first he lost fifth place to the British American Racing car of Jacques Villeneuve before dropping another spot as Montoya moved into sixth on lap 17.

Schumacher clocked the fastest lap of the race on lap 20 to increase his advantage over Barrichello to 1.6 secs with Coulthard 21 secs adrift.

Jaguar Racing's Eddie Irvine, who finished third behind the Ferraris at the last race in Italy, was unable to repeat the heroics this time and on lap 22, he was lapped by Schumacher. The Ulsterman was lying 15th.

But Barrichello found it harder to get past Irvine and by lap 25, his deficit to Schumacher had been extended to 2.6secs.

Montoya, meanwhile, moved back into fifth on the same lap as Villeneuve came into the pits for fresh fuel and new tyres.

Schumacher made his pit-stop on lap 27 handing the lead to Barrichello but still had enough of an advantage to return in second spot.

The lead only changed hands for one lap however as Barrichello made his visit to the Ferrari pit-area next time round the Motor Speedway circuit.

The pit-stops did reclose the gap between the two Ferraris with Schumacher’s lead just 0.2secs after 31 laps.

Schumacher had eked out an advantage of 1.3secs at the end of lap 40 while Coulthard was still in the hunt.

The Scot, who had yet to make his first stop, was just 2.3secs adrift of Schumacher with Raikkonen back in fourth place ahead of Montoya.

Coulthard eventually came in at the end of lap 42, but was obviously on a one-stop strategy compared to the two adopted by Ferrari.

Schumacher made his second and final stop at the end of lap 49 handing the lead back to Barrichello but again it was just for the one lap.

Barrichello came in one lap later and returned to the track with Schumacher negotiating the first corner just ahead of him with Coulthard still in third place.

But there was disappointment for Coulthard’s team-mate Raikkonen who soon suffered another race retirement with a blown engine when set for a points finish.