Schumacher wins again

Michael Schumacher equalled the best-ever start to a Formula One season today by winning his fifth consecutive race at a canter in the Spanish Grand Prix.

The six-times world champion, who started from pole position, maintained his winning run this season with an easy victory in Barcelona to equal Nigel Mansell’s record best start in 1992.

Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello benefited from a different strategy to the majority of his rivals and took second, 13.2seconds behind Schumacher.

Renault’s Jarno Trulli was a further 19 seconds back but claimed his best result of the season in third.

Home hero Fernando Alonso was consistently quick to move from eighth on the grid to fourth in his Renault while Takuma Sato’s best-ever qualifying position of third heralded a fifth place for the BAR driver.

Ralf Schumacher brought his Williams home sixth with Sauber’s Giancarlo Fisichella seventh and Jenson Button eighth for BAR. David Coulthard struggled to 10th in his McLaren.

Trulli took a surprise lead at the start from fourth on the grid after Schumacher’s slow getaway and the Italian valiantly held off the world champion until the first round of pitstops.

Just as he did to Button at Imola two weeks ago, Schumacher stayed out longer and used that time to build a cushion, giving him a lead he would not lose.

When the order settled down following the first stops, the die was cast, with Schumacher holding a small but significant advantage over Barrichello and Trulli unable to keep up in third.

Alonso started eighth but he pushed hard to creep into fourth, largely thanks to his pace around the pit stops.

Button could not cut through the field as his pace over the weekend had suggested he might, instead the Englishman was forced to make painstaking progress.

He passed Cristiano da Matta on lap three before getting the better of McLaren duo Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen.

When he got past Felipe Massa, Button at least reached the points as some consolation for the mistake which robbed him of a chance for pole position yesterday.

As the race approached its closing stages, Button closed on Fisichella but he was unable to overhaul the Italian – who made good use of a two-stop strategy compared to the three preferred by most others – for seventh.

Juan Pablo Montoya had hoped to get Williams’ season back on track after qualifying second but he was never on the pace and slipped out of the podium reckoning from the start before an engine fire in the pits forced him into retirement on lap 47.

Alonso, cheered on by thousands of patriotic Spaniards, pushed hard late in the race to catch Trulli for third but his efforts were in vain as the laps ran out for the Oviedo-born driver, who had closed the gap to under a second.