Schumacher survives collision

Michael Schumacher survived a collision with Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello to grab the lead at the start of the Spanish Grand Prix as championship leader Kimi Raikkonen crashed out in Barcelona.

Schumacher, who has started on pole and Barrichello briefly touched at the first corner as the Brazilian tried to overtake his team-mate having initially lost second place to Renault’s local hero Fernando Alonso.

Raikkonen, forced to start from the back of the field after a nightmare qualifying lap in his McLaren yesterday, rammed into the back of Pizzonia’s Jaguar who was 16th on the grid.

Pizzonia had discovered just before the race that his future was secure for the next few races, with Jaguar having decided not to pursue their interest in reserve driver Alexander Wurz after being unable to meet McLaren’s asking price.

Race officials immediately sent out the safety car so the McLaren and Jaguar cars could be hoisted off the grid.

Raikkonen was obviously determined to make up for his mistake in qualifying though his lead in the championship will still be intact as he led by 13 points from team-mate David Coulthard.

Coulthard’s title hopes also suffered a blow as he hit Jarno Trulli forcing him to pit at the end of the first lap and drop to the back of the field while the Italian was clearly disappointed at seeing his afternoon ended early having qualified fourth.

The safety car returned to the pits at the end of the fifth lap with Schumacher immediately opening up a lead of 0.9secs on his team-mate who had briefly been forced onto the grass by the collision.

Schumacher has been handed a massive opportunity to cut his 14 point deficit to Raikkonen by making a winning debut in the F2003-GA car.

The five-time champion increased his advantage to 2.4secs with 10 of the 65 laps gone while Barrichello was being harassed by 21-year-old Alonso who was just 0.7secs further adrift.

Ralf Schumacher was fourth just ahead of Williams-BMW team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya while Jenson Button was sixth for BAR-Honda.

Minardi’s Justin Wilson was lying ninth while Coulthard had forced his way up to 13th with Jordan’s Ralph Firman 15th.