RACE REPORT

Michael Schumacher scored a sensational victory at the Austrian Grand Prix today, fighting back after a pitstop refuelling fire dropped him down from the lead to third, and putting behind him the memories of last year's contrived win when he was booed on the rostum. However with Kimi Raikkonen able to fend off late pressure from the other Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello the Finn hangs onto the lead of the world championship. 

Twice the start was aborted, and at the third attempt Schumacher, from pole, stormed into the lead, Raikkonen from second dropping behind the Williams-BMW of Juan Pablo Montoya. After a safety car period to move Jos Verstappen's Minardi from a dangerous position Schumacher pulled away from the field. However spitting rain allowed Montoya to close up and by the first round of pitstops the Colombian was only three seconds adrift.

Montoya and Raikkonen pitted, but when Schumacher came in a small fire, quickly extinguised, around the refuelling probe lengthened the stop to 20.4 seconds. The world champion rejoined in third, but would have to stop earlier for his second stop as the team had not put in sufficient fuel before the fire broke out to see him through to his next scheduled stop.

Schumacher quickly passed Raikkonen for second place, and on lap 32, he was handed the lead when Montoya's BMW engine blew. With his light fuel load he reeled off fastest lap after fastest lap and with a clean, although cautiously slow final pitstop, he coasted to an unlikely victory. Raikkonen meanwhile dropped back and was caught by Barriichello, himself recovering from his own pitstop dramas, but the Finn was able to fend off nearly ten laps of sustained pressure from the Brazilian to come home second and retain his championship lead.

Jenson Button finished an excellent fourth, ahead of David Coulthard, who from his poor starting position made heavy weather of the traffic, while next up was Ralf Schumacher who had a quiet afternoon on his way to another helping of points. Mark Webber, after starting in the pitlane and receiving a penalty came home seventh, while the surviving Renault of Jarno Trulli fended of Pizzonia's Jaguar to take the final point. New sensation Fernando Alonso, after starting from the pitlane scythed his way through the field before retiring.

FERRARI REPORT

Third win of the season for Ferrari, again with Michael Schumacher. This is the Scuderia's fifth victory in the Austrian Grand Prix, the 162nd from 676 races. It is also Michael Schumacher's second win in this race and the 67th of his career. 

JEAN TODT

"What a race! It was evident today that, although we were up against very strong opposition, we had the best package. I think this race will go down in history. When Rubens came in for his first stop on lap 21, there was a problem with the refuelling rig, so Michael's was used. Then, on the next lap, it was Michael's turn to pit. A small amount of fuel was still in the nozzle from the previous refuelling, which dripped onto the car and caught fire." 

"Thanks to the bravery and efficiency of the team, he was able to rejoin the race in third place. Michael went on the attack, got back the lead and brought home a third consecutive win of the season. Rubens had an extraordinary drive: but for the problem at his first pit stop, he could have won or at least come second. With this win, Michael has closed the gap still further to the top of the Drivers' classification and the 16 points picked up today allowed us to take the lead in the Constructors' Championship." 

"I must congratulate the team on doing a fantastic job and also Bridgestone, who provided us with very good tyres. Obviously, it is a great pleasure to have secured this result in the presence of Fiat Group President, Umberto Agnelli, who is with us today. The result makes us even more proud to be part of such an important industrial group." 

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER

"Three wins in a row is good for us. Today, it was going our way until the pit stops. I could see the fire -- maybe the mechanics thought I was cold and wanted to warm me up! But the team did a good job to control the situation, reacting quickly with the fire extinguishers. I did wonder how serious the problem was. I had a couple of tricky moments, the first when Montoya blew up in front of me. I had already passed Kimi at that point, but I was not sure if Juan Pablo would continue racing or get off the line." 

"Then, I saw the waved yellow when Alonso went off, but no oil flag, so I ended up going very wide at the first corner, at a crucial stage of the race when I did not want to give away time to Kimi. When it was raining, I was able to be a bit cautious as I was leading. In fact, this situation is difficult when you are leading, as you do not have a car in front of you to judge how the cars are reacting to the conditions. The car's consistency and performance was good, allowing us to build a big enough advantage for our strategy to work." 

RUBENS BARRICHELLO

"I am happy to be on the podium and to score points, especially as I have been feeling under the weather all weekend with a cold, which meant I was sweating a lot in the car. It was a great race, except for my first pit stop, which cost me time. Without that, maybe I could have finished higher, but these things happen in racing. I think today I paid the penalty for my tyre choice, even if the car felt good in terms of consistency throughout the race." 

"At the start, I nearly passed Kimi down the outside. I got slightly ahead, but I was unable to turn in to take the position as the track was dirty on that side. In the closing stages, I pulled alongside him again. I could see him understeering, so I tried to push him to the inside of the corner. The move did not work and then he increased his pace a bit and I could not get too close to him because of the turbulence." 

ROSS BRAWN

"It was a great day for us and an encouraging performance. As for the pit stops, we had a problem with Rubens' fuel rig so we switched to the other one. Then we had another problem with Michael, this time with the refuelling nozzle. It is never pleasant to have a fire, but there was not actually much fuel around and it looked worse than it was. The guys reacted very well to deal with the situation, however, we do not usually have problems with the rigs and now we will have a proper investigation to find out what happened. Our tyres worked perfectly and the car was very strong." 

Michael Schumacher 1st  1:24.04.888 69 laps  chassis 229 
Rubens Barrichello 3rd  +3.951 69 laps  chassis 228