Schumacher strikes back in US

Michael Schumacher shrugged off his early woes to roar back into contention at the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis today.

The German missed the entire first session after his Ferrari conked out on his opening lap but he repaid his mechanics for quickly fixing the problem by clocking the third fastest time in final practice.

Schumacher did go top of the time-sheets when he finally got onto the track but was later relegated a couple of places as team-mate Rubens Barrichello finished fastest from Renault’s Jarno Trulli to end the Italian’s domination of every session so far.

But Schumacher was just fractions behind Barrichello and ahead of his two rivals for the drivers crown with Juan Pablo Montoya fourth for Williams and Kimi Raikkonen sixth for McLaren.

Schumacher leads Montoya by three points with Raikkonen just four points further adrift with tomorrow’s race and the season finale in Japan on October 12 left.

Williams suffered a further blow when Ralf Schumacher locked his brakes at a left-handed corner of the infield section of the Speedway and skidded across the damp grass before slamming sideways into a tyre barrier.

The 28-year-old has only just returned this weekend after missing the last race in Italy following a massive shunt in testing at the Monza track. He was able to immediately step out of the cockpit today to finish ninth quickest.

Britain’s David Coulthard was fifth fastest heading into final qualifying later having spent the first session in the McLaren garage along with Raikkonen.

Jenson Button finished 11th quickest for BAR while Justin Wilson dropped to 16th in the Jaguar – over two seconds off the pace – with Ralph Firman 18th in the Jordan-Ford.