Schumacher cruises to 8th French GP win

The 37-year-old German, seven-time drivers' world champion, drove a faultless race from pole position to the chequered flag to finish ahead of defending champion Fernando Alonso in a Renault.

Schumacher won by 10.1 seconds and his win cut Alonso's advantage in this year's title race from 19 points to 17. It was Schumacher's second win in succession.

Schumacher's Ferrari teammate Brazilian Felipe Massa finished third ahead of German Ralf Schumacher in a Toyota, Finland's Kimi Raikkonen in a McLaren Mercedes-Benz and Italian Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Renault. Pedro de la Rosa and Nick Heidfeld completed the point-scoring positions.

It was Schumacher's eighth victory in the French Grand Prix, the 88th of his career and his fourth win in 11 races this year.

On another day of stifling heat, with the air temperature rising to 35 degrees Celsius and the track temperature to 54, the big sellout 84,000 crowd, many decked out in the blue and yellow colours of Renault, Schumacher made a clean start from the record 68th pole position of his career.

His Ferrari teammate Massa pulled away behind him, but had to resist an attack from Alonso as they ran into the first corner and again during the opening lap. But the Brazilian hung on to second place to provide a crucial defensive cushion for the 'red baron' as he pulled away at the front.

Schumacher reeled off several fastest laps as Massa did a slowing job behind him, the German opening up a lead of more than six seconds before the first round of pitstops. In the train behind the leader, there were no changes from grid positions.

The spectators were kept alert thanks to the occasional attack by Mark Webber on Pedro de la Rosa, usually resisted easily.

Tiago Monteiro, driving a Midland, retired after hitting a kerb at the Nurburgring chicane, joining Takuma Sato, the Japanese who had abandoned the race at the start with his Super Aguri, in the list of non-runners. Before 20 of the 70 laps were up, Brazilian Rubens Barrichello was also out, retiring with some kind of mechanical problems.

The first pitstops shook up the field briefly and gave the two Toyota drivers Italian Jarno Trulli and German Ralf Schumacher opportunities to lead while waiting their turns to pit, after which Michael Schumacher was back in front.

This flurry of action was completed with Schumacher enjoying a six seconds lead ahead of his Ferrari teammate Massa with Alonso, in his Renault, third, a further five seconds adrift.

A problematic pitstop for Ralf Schumacher, as the Toyota team had difficulties with his left rear wheel, cost him 17 seconds and dropped him down the field to seventh.

Some cars were running on two-stop strategies, but the majority were on three stops', a situation that resulted at the half-way stage after 35 laps in Schumacher leading Alonso by 16 seconds, Massa having taken his second pit stop after 34 laps.

This changed again when Schumacher made his second stop after 38 laps and emerged in second place just half a second behind the Spaniard. A thrilling chase followed as they raced at close quarters, rushing past backmarkers and enlivened the crowd.

Australian Webber went off at the Imola chicane and damaged his car badly, limped back to the Williams pits and retired and then Trulli pulled in for his third stop and also abandoned the race. Webber rejoined the fray a few laps later.

Alonso led for four laps before he made his second stop after 42 laps, Schumacher regaining his lead ahead of Massa as Ferrari re-established their superiority at the front. Alonso rejoined third ahead of his Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella.

Schumacher set another fastest lap before he pitted for a third time, by when Massa had also pitted again and conceded second to Alonso, but the Spaniard was unable to make any real impression.

Schumacher's 22 seconds lead was trimmed to just 18.4 seconds by his third stop and with 12 laps remaining he looked to be comfortably in control as Alonso, on a two-stop strategy, settled for second in his wake.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The French Grand Prix
Magny Cours, France;
70 laps; 308.586km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari              (B)  1h32:07.803
 2.  Alonso        Renault              (M)  +    10.131
 3.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  +    22.546
 4.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  +    27.212
 5.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  +    33.006
 6.  Fisichella    Renault              (M)  +    45.265
 7.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  +    49.407
 8.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (M)  +     1 lap
 9.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  +     1 lap
10.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth  (M)  +     1 lap
11.  Villeneuve    BMW-Sauber           (M)  +     1 lap
12.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  +     1 lap
13.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth  (M)  +     1 lap
14.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth    (B)  +    2 laps
15.  Albers        MF1-Toyota           (B)  +    2 laps
16.  Montagny      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +    3 laps

Fastest lap: M.Schumacher, 1:17.111 

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Button        Honda                (M)    63
Webber        Williams-Cosworth    (B)    55
Trulli        Toyota               (B)    41
Barrichello   Honda                (M)    19
Monteiro      MF1-Toyota           (B)    12
Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)    1


World Championship standings, round 11:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Alonso        96        1.  Renault              142
 2.  M.Schumacher  79        2.  Ferrari              121
 3.  Fisichella    46        3.  McLaren-Mercedes      71
 4.  Raikkonen     43        4.  Honda                 32
 5.  Massa         42        5.  Toyota                21
 6.  Montoya       26        6.  BMW-Sauber            20
 7.  Button        16        7.  Red Bull-Ferrari      11
 8.  Barrichello   16        8.  Williams-Cosworth     10
 9.  R.Schumacher  13        9.  Toro Rosso-Cosworth    1
10.  Heidfeld      13       
11.  Coulthard     10       
12.  Trulli         8       
13.  Villeneuve     7       
14.  Webber         6       
15.  Rosberg        4       
16.  de la Rosa     2       
17.  Klien          1       
18.  Liuzzi         1       
       
All timing unofficial