Schumacher blazes to win - report

Michael Schumacher blazed to victory in the Austrian Grand Prix today despite his Ferrari catching fire during a refuelling stop at the A1-Ring.

The German kept his cool to triumph after mechanics were forced to extinguish the fire when the fuel ignited in his petrol tank and atone for last year when he was booed and jeered after being gifted the victory.

Schumacher won by 3.3 seconds from McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen to cut his deficit to the Finn to just two points after six of this season’s 16 races and probably the last one at Spielberg as it has been booted off the calendar in 2004.

Brazil’s Rubens Barrichello, who was ordered to move over for his Ferrari team-mate 12 months ago, finished third in the race which was reduced from 71 to 69 laps after the start was aborted twice when Toyota’s Cristiano da Matta stalled.

Jenson Button equalled his career-best finish with fourth place for BAR-Honda while David Coulthard kept his title hopes alive by finishing fifth for McLaren after starting 14th though he is now 17 points behind Raikkonen.

Germany’s Ralf Schumacher was sixth after seeing Williams-BMW team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya’s challenge ended with a blown engine when he was leading.

Jaguar’s Mark Webber finished seventh despite starting from the pit lane and serving a strop-go penalty with Renault’s Jarno Trulli picking up the final point in eighth place.

Ralph Firman finished 11th for Jordan-Ford with fellow rookie Justin Wilson 13th – and last – for Minardi.

Schumacher’s triumph was the five-time world champion’s third victory in succession and extended his career record to an incredible 67 in 182 races.

The 34-year-old kept his composure and hardly moved a muscle when the flames burst from his petrol tank after following a problem with the refuelling rig on lap 23.

A Ferrari mechanic quickly doused the flames while the two refuellers jumped away though it was nothing like the incident in Germany in 1994 when Schumacher’s then team-mate Jos Verstappen saw his Benetton ignite.

Schumacher had lost control of the race – which had begin in farcical fashion with da Matta’s Toyota stalling just as the red lights went out each time - after being delayed by the fire.

But he was never threatened after sweeping past Raikkonen to regain the lead as Montoya saw his challenge ended as plumes of smoke started emerging from his BMW engine, ironically at the end of a weekend which had seen the Williams chassis castigated as the weakest link in the partnership.

Raikkonen was forced to fiercely defend second spot in the closing stages from Barrichello as he retained the lead in the championship heading to Formula One’s jewel in the crown, the Monaco Grand Prix, in two weeks time.

Button’s fourth place continued his bright start with BAR though team-mate Jacques Villeneuve missed out on a points finish after a problem during his second stop.