Schumacher makes good start

World championship leader Michael Schumacher took advantage of a hesitant start by title rival Juan Pablo Montoya to move up the field in today’s United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis.

The German got off to a flying start as several of the cars ahead of him on the grid failed to react to the lights going into the first corner.

His Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello also had a slow start, which allowed Olivier Panis up into second.

Britain’s Ralph Firman was forced to pit for a new nose-cone and front wing after suffering an early shunt with a Minardi, and as the rain started, Barrichello sensationally spun out.

The Brazilian looked to have held the racing line as Montoya moved up the inside, however, the Colombian failed to yield and Barrichello was sent spinning into the gravel.

That brought the yellow flags out, although it seemed Montoya may overtaken a back marker during the caution period in his pursuit of the leaders.

After 10 laps, Ralf Schumacher had moved up to within 2.8 seconds of race leader Kimi Raikkonen, who had steered clear of trouble from pole.

David Coulthard had moved into third, with Montoya one place further back ahead of Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher.

As the rain eased and the track stabilised, Ralf Schumacher started to eat into the Finns' lead, cutting it back to just a fraction over one second.

Montoya was making progress too and moved ahead of Coulthard into third, although he could soon find himself in the pits after his Williams-BMW team-mate Schumacher took what seemed a somewhat early stop at the end of the 15th lap.

Firman’s Jordan needed some more attention as the Norwich-born racer pitted for the third time, but Montoya spent far more time off the track than he would have liked as problems with refuelling saw the Colombian’s stop take 15.6 seconds. Coulthard was out in 10.6secs and rejoined in 10th.

The heavens opened again as race leader Raikkonen went into the pits, and his 10.9secs stop saw him rejoin the race with Michael Schumacher leading the US Grand Prix.