Schumacher wary of Renault threat

Michael Schumacher admits his crushing Indianapolis win will count for nothing in the French Grand Prix this weekend.

The Ferrari driver ended world championship rival Fernando Alonso’s winning streak in emphatic style to move within 19 points in the standings.

But Alonso hit back when practice at Magny-Cours began yesterday, setting the fastest time from a race driver, closely followed by team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella.

Schumacher knows he faces a tough test on Renault’s home ground and is taking little comfort from his win two weeks ago.

“Every race is a different story,” he said. “As I have said before, it is difficult to say how much momentum we have got from that race because every race is a different story.

“In some areas we have developed the car, as we have at a lot of races. I am sure we will get a step forward but it always depends on how it compares to the steps forward the other teams have made. That we will only see over the weekend.”

Renault team boss Flavio Briatore is certainly not taking Schumacher’s Indianapolis win too seriously, even though Fisichella and Alonso could only finish third and fifth respectively.

The Italian is confident his team are on course for another world title double, insisting: “I am not worried about our competitors.

“Sure Indianapolis was not fantastic for us but we still are some points in front. Michelin were very conservative at Indianapolis. It was not a disaster – we took points. We have a big advantage.”

Behind that battle for the title, Jenson Button and Honda are attempting simply to get back among the points after a frustrating run.

The Englishman was caught up in a first-lap accident at Indianapolis to extend his points drought to four races, a run he aims to end at Magny-Cours.

However, he struggled with a tyre problem when practice began yesterday, leaving him down in 12th in the second session after a more encouraging third in the morning.

Button said: “It was a difficult day for a lot of people due to the amount of graining on the front tyres. We spent most of the second session trying to balance the graining so I couldn’t collect as much data as we would have hoped.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do in the morning so let’s wait and see how the car is looking.”

Button’s fellow Briton David Coulthard also found the going tough and admitted his Red Bull had not performed as well as expected.

Coulthard, who was 25th in second practice having not set a time in the first, said: “We were a bit further away in those conditions than I expected we would be. We started focusing more towards single-lap performance for qualifying so hopefully we will get a pleasant surprise then.”