The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 42

16 Motor racing The Guardian Monday September 29 2003 World champion's 70th grand prix victory leaves Raikkonen needing a miracle in Japan and Juan Pablo Montoya out of the running Schumacher needs single point for record sixth title MttMM being doused with a serious downfall and the cars were slipping and sliding in all directions, team managers desperately attempting- to reduce the impact of the dramatically changing conditions and trying to anticipate whether or not the track surface would remain wet or start drying again. By lap 21 Mark Webber's Jaguar R4 was leading but spun off next time around, as did Ralf Schumacher from second place, and with Michael Schumacher making another unscheduled tyre stop at the end of lap 21, Coulthard led briefly from Raikkonen. At this point the well-placed British driver Jenson Button, profiting by the performance of the Bridgestone rain tyres, took over at the head of the pack in his BAR-Honda, leading from Frentzen's Sauber and Raikkonen, whose Michelin rubber was less well suited to the wet conditions although he began to come back at the leaders as the circuit progressively dried out again. At the start of lap 38 Schumacher's Ferrari went ahead of Button to take the lead and the hapless British driver stopped three laps later when his engine expired spectacular on the main straight. From then on Schumacher cruised home to win, leaving Raikkonen to pass Frentzen but never allowing his rival to get within sight of his bulletproof scarlet machine, which never missed a beat from start to finish.

point of view," said Sam Michael, the chief operations engineer. "We have made quite a lot of mistakes as a team Itgilay which we will have to address for the next race in Japan." Barrichello was surprisingly sanguine about his retirement, a stance which may have-' reflected the fact that he is a close friend of Montoya. Indeed, his remarks suggested that he felt some of the blame was his. "I didn't get the best start," said Barrichello, "and after that the gears weren't working. Then I hit Montoya.

I thought I had given him enough space but obviously it wasn't. I went into the corner and, all of a sudden, I felt a bang." Raikkonen cantered away from the pack in the early stages but Montoya was almost immediately embroiled in controversy and lost those two places after tangling with Barrichello. By contrast, Schumacher kept his Ferrari pretty well out of trouble although by the end of the race there was a conspicuous tyre mark on one of his side pods, which bore testimony to a slight brush with an unidentified rival. Going into lap 15 Montoya surged ahead of David Coulthard to take fourth place and, with Michael Schumacher's Ferrari back in fifth, the Colombian was emerging as a very strong contender had it not been for that drive-through penalty hanging over his head. Suddenly the track was his Williams up the kerb on the inside and made firm contact with Barrichello, spinning the Ferrari into the gravel trap andout of-thflWRuMOfltfiyau; lost a couple more places and was also reported to the stewards for investigation for a possible driving infringement It was eventually decided that he was to blame for the incident and he was forced to serve a drive-through penalty, which effectively wiped him out of contention.

Schumacher eventually won by 18.2sec from Kimi Raikko-nen's McLaren, leaving the 23-year old Finn as the only driver who can overhaul Schumacher in the Japanese grand prix at Suzuka in a fortnight's time. If he is to prevent the German taking the title, Raikkonen has to win and the Ferrari driver must fail to score, a combination which would give Raikkonen the championship by a single point. In a double blow Williams lost their lead in the constructors' championship, dropping three points behind Ferrari, who now have 147 points. Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished third in his Sauber with Jarno Trulli's Renault fourth and the other Sauber driven by Nick Heidfeld fifth ahead of Montoya. On a day which saw Mon-toya's team-mate Ralf Schumacher slide off the circuit into retirement, the Williams team management seemed frustrated and unimpressed.

"It was obviously a bad day for both championships from our Alan Henry in Indianapolis What promised to be an epic batflerjwtween Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya for victory in the US grand prix turned out to be something of a damp squib yesterday as the Colombian driver's challenge fell apart almost from the start of the 73-lap race. As Schumacher surged to his 70th career victory after a flawless drive in his Ferrari, Montoya slipped and slid his Williams to sixth place, which wrote him out of the championship equation. Schumacher benefited from the superior performance of the Bridgestone rain tyres fitted to his Ferrari on a day when their Michelin opposition, used by both McLaren and Williams, were far less effective as intermittent downpours transformed the circuit into a skating rink. Montoya began the day feeling confident. He had qualified fourth, three places ahead of Schumacher, but by the end of the opening lap their positions were reversed and he had lost the initiative.

Pushing hard to stay in contention, he ran down the outside of Rubens Barrichello's sixth-placed Ferrari as they braked for the right-hander after the pits, then tried to squeeze ahead of the Brazilian as they went into the left-hander immediately following. In an excessively ambitious manoeuvre Montoya forced hBHbhhhIhHHHHIB Michael Schumacher takes the chequered flag at the end of the Raikkonen rues the SnBkb'-Ferrari-' Ihr33rrins35.997sees 92pta RaMjjhen-' as. QnIUllonn(nn) 8pts, 0 CMiauiaHmiMitkiUai: Raikkonen would have been right back in the championship race. On examining the videos, however, the McLaren chairman Ron Dennis made it clear that he felt Schumacher had no case to answer. He accepted that the Ferrari driver had completed the overtaking manoeuvre before he reached the yellow flag area and the whole matter was allowed to drop.

Raikkonen, who qualified brilliantly on pole position for only the second time in his career, now has to win the Japanese grand prix on Alan Henry at Indianapolis For a few fleeting moments after the chequered flag fell to mark the end of the fourth US grand prix to be held at Indianapolis it seemed that Kimi Raikkonen's dwindling championship hopes might suddenly receive an unexpected boost. Olivier Panis, the Toyota driver, accused Michael Schumacher of overtaking him early in the race under waved yellow warning flags. Had it gone to a protest and Schumacher been disqualified, Rubflnl Rarrlchalla (Br) Ferrari.