Motor Sport/ British Grand Prix: You've got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them, as the song goes. When Michael Schumacher came to the table yesterday, he looked like a man who had put down his money and been dealt a handful of nothing in return.
Within half an hour it became clear that he was holding nothing but aces. The message is simple: don't get into a game of poker with this man.
And even by the general standards of sport steeped in deception, Schumacher has always been a master of the straight face and the deflecting response. He was at his best at Silverstone yesterday, in more than one sense.
The 80th grand prix victory of his career came as a reward for a performance of superlative skill and professionalism. But this is something we have seen so many times before that it came as no great surprise when his Ferrari, which had started the race from fourth on the grid, crossed the finish line ahead of polesitter Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren, Rubens Barrichello in the second Ferrari and Jenson Button's BAR. The scale of Schumacher's victory became apparent only when the nature of his pre-race game of bluff was revealed.
We know that he is good enough to out-drive his current rivals on any given day. Yesterday we also saw very clearly how comprehensively he can out-think them.
As the winner of the previous race, a week earlier, he went out first for the afternoon's pre-qualifying session and shocked the crowd by spinning harmlessly towards the end of the lap. That gave him a poor time and an unfavourable early starting position in the qualifying order.
Ah, the pit-lane analysts said, that spin was intentional. Ferrari's weather forecast is telling them it is going to rain towards the end of the qualifying hour and they want to reduce the danger of getting caught in a shower. Going out early in the session means you miss the benefit of the extra adhesion created by the rubber from the tyres of the first runners but a wet surface is far worse. Clever old Michael.
Several other teams followed Ferrari's lead. The result was a qualifying session that tipped over into the realms of farce, although that was of no concern to Schumacher and his team, whose only job is to interpret the rules to their own advantage.
As it happened, the rain held off and Schumacher ended up fourth on the grid. But his true gamble was yet to be revealed.
When the lights went out at the start of the race, he held station behind a lightning quick Raikkonen, team-mate Barrichello and Button until the first round of pit-lane action began. After those three dived in for fuel and tyres, between the ninth and 11th laps, Schumacher took advantage of the clear track to put in a sprint which included two laps more than half a second faster than anyone else managed all day.
His effort paid off. After making his stop at the end of lap 15 he was able to return to the track ahead of the entire field. And that was where he stayed, his two-stop strategy keeping him ahead of his rivals, all of whom stopped three times.
"I'm amazed at how the race went," he said later. "I thought we had a good strategy but I never expected it to pay off so early." In France a week earlier he had stupefied the opposition by stopping four times and winning. Yesterday it looked as though he and Ross Brawn, Ferrari's technical director, had achieved such tactical mastery that they could play with their rivals' expectations.
"I don't honestly know what they expected us to do," Brawn said last night. "But what we have to try and do is get out of phase with the others, so that we can use the car properly."
And there he gave a clue to the real strategy, which was based on a knowledge the Bridgestone tyres used by Ferrari are not as good as the Michelins used by their rivals at the start of a stint but become more effective in the middle and towards the end.
"If we can't have some free track space when that occurs, we're in trouble," Brawn said. With that in mind, it can make better sense to fuel the car up for longer stints between stops, with the aim of taking advantage of the opportunity offered by an empty road ahead.
"Then it's down to the guys to use it," Brawn added, "and that's what Michael was able to do today. Conversely Rubens, who had an aggressive strategy, was not happy in the race. So obviously the track changed between Saturday and Sunday and that worked for Michael."
It usually does. And yesterday the luck of the draw had nothing to do with it. The world champion had the cards all along.
Guardian Service
How they finished
BRITISH GRAND PRIX, SILVERSTONE (after 60 laps): 1 M Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1hr 24mins 42.700secs, 2 K Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren Mercedes 1:24:44.830, 3 R Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 1:24:45.814, 4 J Button (Gbr) BAR Honda 1:24:53.383, 5 J Montoya (Col) Williams BMW 1:24:54.873, 6 G Fisichella (Ita) Sauber Petronas 1:24:55.588, 7 D Coulthard (Gbr) McLaren Mercedes 1:25:02.368, 8 M Webber (Aus) Jaguar 1:25:06.401, 9 F Massa (Bra) Sauber Petronas 1:25:06.723, 10 F Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:25:07.535, 11 T Sato (Jpn) BAR Honda 1:25:16.436, 12 M Gene (Spa) Williams BMW 1:25:17.003, 13 C Da Matta (Bra) Toyota at 1 lap, 14 C Klien (Aut) Jaguar at 1 lap, 15 N Heidfeld (Ger) Jordan Cosworth at 1 lap, 16 G Bruni (Ita) Minardi Cosworth at 4 laps Not Classified: 17 G Pantano (Ita) Jordan Cosworth 47 laps, 18 J Trulli (Ita) Renault 39 laps, 19 Z Baumgartner (Hun) Minardi Cosworth 29 laps, 20 O Panis (Fra) Toyota 16 laps.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS Drivers' Championship: 1 M Schumacher 100, 2 R Barrichello 74, 3 J Button 53, 4 J Trulli 46, 5 F Alonso 33, 6 J Montoya 29, 7 K Raikkonen 18, 8 T Sato 14, 9 D Coulthard 14, 10 G Fisichella 13, 11 R Schumacher 12, 12 F Massa 5, 13 O Panis 5, 14 M Webber 4, 15 C Da Matta 3, 16 N Heidfeld 3, 17 T Glock 2, 18 Z Baumgartner 1
Manufacturers' Championship: 1 Ferrari 174pts, 2 Renault 79, 3 BAR Honda 67, 4 Williams BMW 41, 5 McLaren Mercedes 32, 6 Sauber Petronas 18, 7 Toyota 8, 8 Jordan Cosworth 5, 9 Jaguar 4, 10 Minardi Cosworth 1
