09.05.2004 Ferrari claimed their third 1-2 of the season in SPAIN today as Michael Schumacher led home team mate Rubens Barrichello: race report AND result FROM BARCELONA

Pole position, the fastest race lap and five wins from five races for Michael Schumacher and Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro.

And, as Jean Todt said after this 172nd victory for the team, “there could be no better way to celebrate Michael’s 200th Grand Prix.”

To complete a great day for the Scuderia, Rubens Barrichello was second to give Ferrari its third one-two finish of the season.

At the start, Trulli’s Renault shot through from the second row to lead going into the first corner. He was followed by Michael Schumacher, with Sato getting his BAR into third ahead of the slow starting Montoya in the BMW-Williams. Barrichello maintained his fifth place.

The majority of the field was on a three stop strategy and Alonso and Panis began the first run of stops on lap 8. One lap later, the race leader came in, allowing Michael to up the pace, so that when the Ferrari man came in on lap 10, he got ahead of the Renault driver, while Sato led from Barrichello. One lap later, Rubens took the lead as Sato pitted.

At this point, Michael’s car suffered a cracked left exhaust and although it altered the engine note, it did not affect the performance of the F2004. Barrichello had opted for a two stop strategy and finally came in to refuel on lap 17, so that Michael now led again, with a 5.7 advantage over Trulli, with Rubens third, Sato fourth and Alonso fifth. Montoya was now sixth.

By lap 23, Michael’s lead had grown to over eight seconds over his team-mate as Trulli had pitted again dropping to fifth. On lap 25, Michael made his second stop. The team noticed that the cracked exhaust had damaged the bodywork because of a small fire. However, he rejoined still leading.

The final run of pit stops for the three-stoppers was led by Trulli on lap 41. Two laps later, Barrichello made his second and final stop, promoting Sato to second ahead of Rubens. But when Schumacher and Sato both refuelled for a final time on lap 45, the Brazilian was comfortably back in second place and from then on the positions remained unaltered to the flag at the end of 66 laps, with Michael crossing the line 13.2 seconds ahead of his team-mate, and Trulli coming home third, 19 seconds behind Barrichello.