Juan-Pablo Montoya took an easy victory at Hockenheim in the blistering heat as his team mate and closest rival for race honours, Ralf Scumacher, retired on the opening lap with sidepod damage. With fifty points now scored in the last six races, the Colombian is just six points behind Michael Schumacher as the title race becomes even more open.

Kimi Raikkonen, along with Ralf Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Ralph Firman and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, were all eliminated at the start. Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher started poorly, and Raikkonen, seeing a gap, squeezed his McLaren up the outside. As they approached the first turn Ralf moved wide to protect his line, resulting in the three tangling.

Michael Schumacher took advantage of the startline chaos, eventually picking off the Renaults to move up to second. However, disaster struck three laps from the finish as he suffered a left rear puncture and faced a slow drive to the pits. The German emerged to finish in seventh place behind the two ever improving Toyotas of Olivier Panis and Christiano Da Matta.

David Coulthard, aided by an early switch in McLaren's pitstop strategy, steadily worked his way through the field to take advantage of Schumacher's late puncture and finish in second place, while Jarno Trulli, in the thick of the action all afternoon, claimed his first podium position in four years.

FERRARI RACE REPORT

Jean Todt: "This was the most difficult and disappointing race of the season. After Rubens was knocked out of the race in the accident at the start, we witnessed a very intelligent race from Michael, who was on his way to bringing home a very good result in terms of both championships. Unfortunately, with three laps remaining, when he was lying second, a left rear puncture meant he had to drive slowly round to the pits for an unscheduled wheel change. He rejoined in seventh place. At least Michael managed to salvage two useful points." 

"There are four Grands Prix remaining: Michael leads the Drivers' Championship by six points, while Ferrari is ahead by two in the Constructors' classification. It is clear that the final outcome of the fight will be decided by the performance of the different packages: drivers, chassis, engines and tyres." 

Michael Schumacher: "Obviously, I am disappointed to finish only seventh after a tough race which could have brought me eight points. Now I only have two, but at least I am still leading the championship. As I expected, Williams is now emerging as our main rival. I lost two positions after the start and I had to fight hard to get up to second. I have to say my car was working well throughout the race, even if I did not have the pace to catch Montoya, as he had built up a big lead by then." 

"Towards the end, I picked up a puncture on the left rear and now we need to find out what caused it. Four races to go; it's going to be very close and the battle for the title will be very exciting, just as we expected. I am looking forward to the fight." 

Rubens Barrichello: "I am very disappointed. I had nowhere to go at the moment of the accident. I had an average start. I think both Ralf and Kimi took big risks, especially Kimi who went very wide to get past. Ralf moved to the left and gave me nowhere to go. I braked and then I was hit while not making any changes of direction with the steering wheel. A real shame, as today I could have had a good race and a great result." 

Ross Brawn: "It was a tough race, losing Rubens at the start and then disappointing at the end when Michael suffered a puncture while driving like the true champion he is. He waited for the right moment to pass Trulli, when the Renault driver started to have problems with his tyres. Losing second place like that was cruel luck. Michael's problem was a puncture; they happen occasionally, but in this case, it was particularly harmful, as it happened just after he had passed the pits. That meant he had to do almost a whole lap very slowly to come back in and change the wheel. Now we must discover what caused the puncture. Now we will regroup and come back stronger for the final four races of the season." 

Michael Schumacher, chassis 231; Rubens Barrichello, chassis 230