British GP 2002 - Michael's march continues.

Four times World Champion Michael Schumacher continued his march towards his fifth world title today [Sunday] with another dominant win at the British Grand Prix.

Michael started the race from third on the grid, but was promoted to second effectively when his Ferrari team-mate, Rubens Barrichello stalled on the dummy grid and was thus forced to start from the back.

Off the line little of any incident happened at the front and at the end of the first lap Michael Schumacher was second trailing BMW WilliamsF1 driver, and pole sitter, Juan Pablo Montoya. Michael's brother Ralf held third and further down the pack Jenson Button shot up the field when the lights went out, moving from his twelfth place starting position to seventh, behind his team-mate Jarno Trulli.

Brit Allan McNish meanwhile wasn't so lucky he had a clutch problem off the grid and despite the best efforts of the Toyota mechanics was forced to call it day - a hugely disappointing result for the Scot on what was his first ever home grand prix.

Sauber's Felipe Massa also had a miserable start and spinning off at the first corner. Despite re-joining, the Brazilian will have wished his day ended their and then as throughout the afternoon he had a terrible race, spinning off three times in the course of the 60 lap race as conditions varied from being damp, to wet, to damp and then dry. He eventually finished ninth.

To return to the start though and while conditions were mainly dry, rain threatened to turn the race into a lottery at any time. In the earlier laps the battle between Michael and Montoya was fascinating stuff, Montoya defending his position with the usual vigour we have come to expect from the man they call the 'Monster'.

As the minutes ticked by though the skies got greyer and the rain heavier. 12 laps in and the heaven's opened and suddenly the mechanics were frantic in the pits as drivers stopped to change to more appropriate tyres. As cars queued to change 'boots' the race played perfectly into the hands of Ferrari, thanks to Bridgestone and their intermediate tyres. While the Michelin runners had only a straight choice between wets and dries, the Bridgestone guys had the luxury of the intermediate and immediately the pendulum swung further in Ferrari's favour. Michelin has yet to develop a competitive intermediate tyre and now the McLaren's and Renault's, who had been running in the points, were in deep trouble.

At the head of the field it didn't take long for Michael to pass Montoya and around lap 17, the German took the lead and was never to be challenged again. At the end of lap 17 Michael led by 2.458 seconds and two laps later the gap was up to 8.445 seconds and so on, as the invincible Schumacher sailed on to his 60th F1 win and his second at the British GP.

Michael eventually won by 14.578 seconds, with his Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello making it yet another Ferrari 1-2. How many has there been now? More than most would like to remember...

Rubinho's race was far from dull, having stalled at the start though the Brazilian had the bit between his teeth and sliced through the field with a mixture of skill and precision. By lap 1 he was up to 14th, 2 laps later it he was 11th and by lap six he was 8th - a commanding performance and brilliant for the fans that witnessed what was probably one of the best races of the year, thus far.

After the pit-stops Barrichello was back up in second, and back to where he should have started. The Ferrari No. 2 then proceeded to put the pedal to the floor in his efforts to catch his team-mate and potentially win his third ever grand prix. Around the halfway mark though, Rubinho spun and it was this mistake that gift Michael his 60th win.

The drama did not end there though, following the second pit stop Montoya took the initiative and while Rubens was taking it easy, trying to get his tyres up to temperature, JPM took the advantage and passed the Brazilian at Club. The battle that followed was almost a replay of the earlier one between Michael and Juan, but Rubens eventually went by on lap 46 and remained there to the chequered flag, with Montoya 15 seconds behind.

If it was a good race for Ferrari, it was also a fantastic one for Bridgestone with six of the top seven cars all on their rubber. British American Racing used this 'ace' to the full going from strength to strength through the 60-lap event. Up to today the Brackley based team had failed to score a point, not so now, Jacques Villeneuve had a brilliant race to finish fourth and his team-mate, Olivier Panis made it a 'double whammy' by coming home fifth. True the weather played into their hands, eliminating the performance advantage of the McLaren's and Renault's who could do nothing with their Michelin tyres, but nevertheless they were there at the finish and that is half the battle.

Sauber's Nick Heidfeld also benefited from the superior Bridgestone tyres and duly came home sixth and claimed the final championship point. Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella finished seventh and the second BMW WilliamsF1 of Ralf Schumacher, was eighth. Ralf's race was effectively ruined by a refuelling rig problem and despite his best efforts he never recovered.

Of the rest Fisichella's team-mate, Takuma Sato retired with an engine failure on lap 50 and engine problems also took care of McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen and the Arrows-Cosworth of Heinz-Harald Frenzten. Frenzten's team-mate, Enrique Bernoldi also retired with technical difficulties and so to did the Renault's of Jenson Button and Jarno Trulli - Trulli going out with an electronics problem and Button after noticing a problem with the left front wheel. Toyota had a miserable day, failing to get a single car to the finish, Mika Salo stopping on lap 16 with a transmission failure and McNish never even got off the grid - a clutch problem ending his day before it even began.

Mark Webber meanwhile, the sole Minardi in the race, after Alex Yoong failed to qualify spun off on lap eight and Jaguar's Eddie Irvine was another who was caught out by the unpredictable weather.

David Coulthard finished but it was a miserable race for the Scot. He pitted four times in a bid to find the right tyre for the conditions but never made any real progress once he was required to go onto the Michelin wet weather tyres. Indeed DC had a torrid afternoon, and was clearly struggling to keep it on the track. The final classified finisher was Pedro de la Rosa, his race like all the runners on Michelin tyres was compromised by the weather.

So Ferrari took their fourth one-two of the season and Michael his 60th win of his F1 career. Can anyone stop them? Not a chance.

Race Result:

1.Michael SchumacherGermanyFerrari-Ferrari60 laps1hr 31mins 45.015secs
2.Rubens BarrichelloBrazilFerrari-Ferrari+14.578 secs
3.Juan MontoyaColombiaWilliams-BMW+31.661secs
4.Jacques VilleneuveCanadaBAR-Honda+1 lap
5.Olivier PanisFranceBAR-Honda+1 lap
6.Nick HeidfeldGermany Sauber-Petronas+1 lap

7.Giancarlo FisichellaItalyJordan-Honda+1 lap
8.Ralf SchumacherGermanyWilliams-BMW+1 lap
9.Felipe MassaBrazilSauber-Petronas+1 lap
10.David CoulthardBritainMcLaren-Mercedes+2 laps
11.Pedro de la RosaSpainJaguar-Cosworth+2 laps

Rtd.Jenson ButtonBritainRenault-Renault54 laps completed
Rtd.Takuma SatoJapanJordan-Honda50 laps completed
Rtd.Kimi RaikkonenFinlandMcLaren-Mercedes44 laps completed
Rtd.Jarno TrulliItalyRenault-Renault29 laps completed
Rtd.Enrique BernoldiBrazilArrows-Cosworth28 laps completed
Rtd.Eddie IrvineBritainJaguar-Cosworth23 laps completed
Rtd.Heinz-Harald FrentzenGermanyArrows-Cosworth20 laps completed
Rtd.Mika SaloFinlandToyota-Toyota15 laps completed
Rtd.Mark WebberAustraliaMinardi-Asiatech9 laps completed
Rtd.Allan McNishBritainToyota-Toyota0 laps completed

DNQ.Alex YoongMalaysiaMinardi-Asiatech

Fastest lap:

Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1min 23.083secs