Schuey closes in on Alonso

Michael Schumacher scythed into Fernando Alonso’s world championship lead with a brilliant victory in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.

Schumacher delighted his home crowd with a consummate display to hold off team-mate Felipe Massa by 0.7 seconds and win for the third consecutive race.

But a fine day for Ferrari, which included Bridgestone’s 100th Formula One win, was made even better by Renault’s lacklustre display.

Alonso struggled all weekend at Hockenheim and offered little in the race, finishing fifth to see his standings lead slashed to 11 points.

Kimi Raikkonen returned to the podium in third after starting from pole position, giving McLaren’s engine partner Mercedes a pleasing result on home turf.

Jenson Button finally returned to form with fourth place to end his five-race points drought, although the Honda driver just missed a podium when he was overtaken by Raikkonen with nine laps to go.

Giancarlo Fisichella was sixth for Renault, finishing under pressure from Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, who fought from the back of the grid to seventh. Christian Klien took the last point for Red Bull.

His team-mate David Coulthard was down in 11th after being hit by Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher at the start, when Alonso vaulted up to fifth from seventh on the grid.

But he was soon swamped by rivals at the hairpin, wisely giving space to Button but dropping a spot in the process as Raikkonen pulled clear.

The Finn was soon the only McLaren in the race when Pedro de la Rosa parked up with fourth-lap mechanical failure, joining Nico Rosberg in retirement after the Williams driver crashed out.

Raikkonen’s lead was short-lived though when he made an early pit stop on lap 10 and dropped to eighth after mechanics struggled to remove his right rear tyre.

He emerged just behind Rubens Barrichello but stayed there for only nine laps before the Brazilian’s Honda expired with flames licking around the engine.

Raikkonen’s pit drama gave him little chance of retaining the lead and Schumacher had his hands full too when he became the last of the front-runners to make his first stop.

Massa had pitted a lap earlier and was on course to snatch top spot before appearing to ease off, allowing Ferrari’s main title hope to keep the lead by inches.

Well behind that battle, Jacques Villeneuve brought Sauber-BMW’s day to an early end on lap 33, adding to Nick Heidfeld’s early retirement by smashing into the wall at the final corner.

The second round of pit stops saw Schumacher again just hold on to his lead despite impressive pace from Massa, returning to the track on lap 45 with just a second separating the two.

The battle at the front was all over by two-thirds distance but the fight for third was just hotting up, with Raikkonen overtaking both Webber and Button in the closing stages to round out the podium.

Webber dropped out of that fight with eight laps to go when his Williams cruelly ground to a halt.