Highlights

Motor racing-Schumacher blasts title race wide open

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-31 08:55

"We had a superb weekend, our car just functioned really great," he said.

"It's the right moment in time, where we need to have such a performance in order to bring down the gap in the championship and keep pressure on."

Raikkonen, who had started on pole, was out of sight in third place and 13.2 seconds behind as he ended a jinx and finished at engine partner Mercedes's home track for the first time in six attempts.

"Bridgestone have a slight advantage, but you could say we're up there," said Mercedes motorsport director Norbert Haug.

"We're going on the right way. We were clearly behind Renault before and now we're clearly in front of them. We'll see what happens now."

Alonso, who had qualified a disappointing seventh on his 25th birthday, made up two places at the start but then faded and was never in contention.

He has 100 points to Schumacher's 89.

The Spaniard would have been staring at his worst result in almost a year had Australian Mark Webber, wrestling every scrap of performance from his Williams, not retired eight laps from the finish while ahead of him.

Alonso also survived a big scare five laps from the end when he went wide, the car bucking and jumping over the gravel before he regained the track just in front of Italian team mate Giancarlo Fisichella.

Briton Jenson Button was fourth for Honda, ending a run of five races without points.

Fisichella finished sixth, with Toyota's Italian Jarno Trulli seventh and Austrian Christian Klien taking the final point for Red Bull.

Germany's Nico Rosberg failed to get past the first lap, crashing his Williams into the tyre wall, while Canadian Jacques Villeneuve also had a crash in the BMW Sauber.