Canadian GP 2001 - Schumacher family affair.

They dominated in qualifying, they dominated in the race - Ralf and Michael Schumacher allowed no-one else so much as a look in during the Canadian Grand Prix.

And, yes, this was the Ralf and Michael show - and not the other way around - for it was the younger sibling who came out on top in a classic head-to-head between the Williams and Ferrari teams.

Michael held sway from the start, fending off his little brother and the eager David Coulthard as the field funnelled into the notorious first corner at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Remarkably, everyone made it through unscathed, but it was apparent immediately that the two Germans had something in hand over the rest of the field.

Only the second Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello appeared to have the sort of pace - and space - to match the two leaders, quickly passing the second row men Coulthard and Jarno Trulli to assume third on the road and begin closing down the Schumachers.

Coulthard, for one, was clearly running to a single-stop strategy and, given the McLaren's renowned fuel capacity, was running full to the brim in the early stages. This led to a train of cars forming up behind him from the very start, with Trulli heading those keen to overhaul the silver-and-black roadblock in their way. The group quickly comprised Olivier Panis from sixth on the grid, the fast-starting Jos Verstappen from 13th and Kimi Raikkonen, with the second Jordan of Ricardo Zonta bottling a slow starting Mika Hakkinen and the rest of the midfield up behind him.

The first casualty came at the end of the first lap and, to the surprise of many who know recent results at the circuit, it was Giancarlo Fisichella. The little Italian has enjoyed a run of podium finishes in Canada in seasons past, but probably wished that his pre-grid problem had been enough to keep him out of the action as an incident with Benetton team-mate Jenson Button damaged the front of his B201, ending his event barely before it had begun.

The field had hardly covered another half lap before two other midfield runners were out, the frustrated Eddie Irvine blowing his chance of using a revised Jaguar to make up ground by piling into the luckless Nick Heidfeld on lap two - a fact the Irishman readily admitted to.

Then, just four laps on, the first high-profile casualty emerged, as the flying Barrichello spun exiting the hairpin and dropped to 14th. This left him embroiled in the midfield scrap behind Zonta, and eventually put paid to his race as he went off avoiding the crashing Juan Montoya 14 laps later.

With one potential thorn out of the race, and the two McLarens running slower than needed to keep up with the two leaders, the Schumachers quickly assumed control. Things still were far from a foregone conclusion, especially given the lamentable reliability record of the Williams entries in 2001, but Ralf was not about to let slip an opportunity to show the world that his brother was beatable.

Even though the safety car called out to cover the clean-up of the Montoya-Barrichello incident meant that the Michelins on his Williams faded slightly from their optimum, Ralf was quickly back onto the tail of his brother's Ferrari - and setting lap record after lap record in his attempts to find a way past.

For a period between laps 26 and 45, the two Germans ran nose-to-tail, Ralf ducking out every now and again as they raced into the chicane in the hope that there may be a gap, and swapping fastest lap times with Michael like they were cigarette cards. Even the appearance of backmarkers failed to put a dampener on the proceedings, which provided fascinating viewing, if a few palpitations in the pit-lane.

The battle was only finally broken up when the Ferrari's higher fuel consumption meant that Michael had to pit - and Ralf knew that this was his chance to seal the victory. Proving that he had more speed in the BMW V10 once he had a clear track ahead of him, the San Marino GP winner promptly lowered the lap record three times in six laps before making his own pit-stop, breaking the back of his brother's challenge and emerging the length of the home straight ahead of the Ferrari once new tyres and fuel had been taken on board.

Even though Michael closed up on the next lap, courtesy of his warmer tyres, there was nothing he could do to prevent Ralf from capturing his second race win of the season - and his F1 career - and Ferrari gradually dropped away from Williams as the world champion cannily drove for points.

Although a six-point haul will not have been what Schumacher Sr envisaged before the race, they took on greater significance when Coulthard's Montreal jinx struck again. The Scot had dropped behind Barrichello early on but, on the Brazilian's demise, found himself back in a distant third place with most of the race to run. There was clearly a problem with the McLaren, however - over and above Coulthard's heavy fuel load - and the Scot soon found that he could not shake the likes of Trulli from his tail.

With the Woking team searching anxiously for a solution among the working of the spare car, Coulthard made his regulation stop shortly before pulling back into pit-lane with the back of his car swathed in palls of white smoke. Never a podium finisher in Canada, this was the Scot's first non-points finish of the season, but still dropped him 18 behind Schumacher.

Team-mate Hakkinen had already passed Coulthard by the time of his retirement, and hung on to take his best result of the year, albeit only a third place. Once free of Zonta's Jordan, the 1999 and '99 champion quickly showed the pace of which he and his car were capable, but it was already too late to do anything about the leaders. Hakkinen briefly vied with Ralf Schumacher for fastest lap of the race, but then settled for a scoring finish instead.

With so many leading runners out of the race, however, there were points aplenty for those who managed to keep their cars on the island - and out of the usual brake problems thrown up by the high-speed and tight corner nature of the Ile Notre Dame track.

Hakkinen's compatriot Kimi Raikkonen came through to claim another fourth place - to go with that he earned in Austria - but not before having to overcome the challenges of Panis, Trulli and Verstappen. With the Frenchman joining BAR team-mate Jacques Villeneuve on the sidelines, and Trulli likewise succumbing late in the day, Raikkonen was able to take home three points from another impressive display.

Behind him should have come Jean Alesi and Verstappen, the Dutchman pressing on after a two-stop strategy put him in contention for points. With clouds of black dust emanating from his front brakes every time he slowed for the hairpins, however, Verstappen should perhaps have called it a day before the inevitable accident put him out of the running. Fortunately, unlike Heinz-Harald Frentzen, the Dutch driver was able to walk away from the shunt - but knew that another valuable point lay among the tangled front of his Arrows.

In his place came a grateful Pedro de la Rosa, the Spaniard capitalising on the new-found reliability of the Jaguar to score his first point since joining the Milton Keynes team. This also meant that there was no fairy-tale ending to Ricardo Zonta's role as substitute for the ailing Frentzen, the Brazilian finishing seventh ahead of the only other finishers, Luciano Burti and Tarso Marques.

On this occasion, the magic and dreams were all taking place at the front of the field, as the two Schumachers embraced in parc ferme to mark an historic family one-two. The Brothers Grin!

Race Results:

1. Ralf Schumacher Germany Williams-BMW 69 laps 1hr 34mins 31.522secs
2. Michael Schumacher Germany Ferrari-Ferrari +20.200secs
3. Mika Hakkinen Finland McLaren-Mercedes +40.600secs
4. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Sauber-Petronas +1min 08.100secs
5. Jean Alesi France Prost-Acer +1min 10.400secs
6. Pedro de la Rosa Spain Jaguar-Cosworth +1 lap
7. Ricardo Zonta Brazil Jordan-Honda +1 lap
8. Luciano Burti Brazil Prost-Acer +1 lap
9. Tarso Marques Brazil Minardi-European +3 laps
10. Jos Verstappen Holland Arrows-Asiatech +4 laps (not running)

Rtd Jarno Trulli Italy Jordan-Honda 63 laps completed
Rtd David Coulthard Britain McLaren-Mercedes 54 laps completed
Rtd Olivier Panis France BAR-Honda 38 laps completed
Rtd Jacques Villeneuve Canada BAR-Honda 34 laps completed
Rtd Enrique Bernoldi Brazil Arrows-Asiatech 24 laps completed
Rtd Juan Montoya Colombia Williams-BMW 19 laps completed
Rtd Rubens Barrichello Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari 19 laps completed
Rtd Jenson Button Britain Benetton-Renault 17 laps completed
Rtd Fernando Alonso Spain Minardi-European 7 laps completed
Rtd Nick Heidfeld Germany Sauber-Petronas 1 lap completed
Rtd Eddie Irvine Britain Jaguar-Cosworth 1 lap completed
Rtd Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Benetton-Renault 0 laps completed

Fastest lap: Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1min 17.205secs