Schumi's tactical victory

It was the 79th success of the world champion's record-breaking career, and his fourth in a row, but the afternoon was a far cry from the action-packed U.S. Grand Prix of two weeks ago.

Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who started on pole position for Renault in the French carmaker's home race, led for over half of the race and was seemingly on course for victory as he held Schumacher at bay. But a strategic change by Ferrari and a blistering ten laps by Schumacher gave the German his 60th victory since joining the Scuderia.

Ferrari realised that they didn't have the pace to get by Alonso on the track, and with Schumacher also running shorter stints than the Spaniard, chief tactician Ross Brawn called a risky four-stop strategy.

This meant that Schumacher third stint was extremely short, and once Alonso had made his final stop, the German only had an eight second advantage with one stop still to complete. This is where Schumacher proved his champion status, pulling out a series of fast laps to extend that lead to 20 seconds after just nine laps, sufficient time to get him out in the lead and with it the victory.

"We decided to go for the four-stop strategy after the second pit stop," Schumacher said. "We knew that it optimistic, but no risk no fun, so Ross decided to call it worked. I was surprised by how long Alonso was able to stay out and the pace he was setting, he put in a lot of fuel for his final stop and that was our opportunity."

Alonso settled for second but believes that the Renault team were too conservative. "We had a lot of fuel at the end and I regret that we changed our strategy from the start of the race, I think that we tried to protect our lead too much," he said. "I think that the team were surprised by Ferrari's decision to risk the four-stop strategy but we didn't have the pace to react."

Rubens Barrichello capped a great race as he charged through from tenth on the grid to take the final place on the podium thanks to a final corner lunge on Jarno Trulli. "Trulli left the door completely open," said a furious Pat Symonds, Renault's chief engineer. "I will be talking to him later to see what happened."

Jenson Button, who was in a position to take third after his final pit stop, finally finished fifth with David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen sixth and seventh with their new McLaren, just five seconds slower than Barrichello.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, disqualified in the previous two races, took a point for a deeply disappointing Williams team who celebrated a one-two finish in France last year but were without injured Ralf Schumacher.

Takuma Sato, third for BAR at the last race in Indianapolis to equal the best result by a Japanese driver, was the first retirement with yet another of the engine problems that have dogged his season.

"I struggled a little bit right at the start, and obviously, after the pit stop there was a significant problem and the engine did not last," he said after pulling over on the 17th lap. It was his sixth retirement in 10 races.

Schumacher, irresistible and implacable as ever, leads the championship with 90 points to team mate Barrichello's 68. Ferrari, their sixth successive constructors' crown looking more inevitable by the day, have 158 points to Renault's 79.