Ralf Schumacher may have taken victory in yesterday's battle of attrition at the German Grand Prix, but his brother Michael moved another step closer to winning the championship war in double-quick time - and he didn't even have to cross the finish line.
While Ralf took the chequered flag, and his third victory of the season, after being one of the few major team drivers to keep his car and himself in one piece for the duration of the arduous race, Michael Schumacher sat back in the forests of Hockenheim, ear trained to a borrowed transistor radio, after he had pulled out of the race with a fuel pressure problem.
And how he must have rejoiced when late in the race he heard the news that his closest championship rival, David Coulthard, had also failed to finish, the Scot's Mercedes engine blowing up almost immediately after his pit stop.
Coulthard's failure to finish means the 37-point gap between he and championship leader Michael Schumacher still holds. With just five races left, it would appear time has run out for Coulthard. Even if he wins the next five events, Michael Schumacher simply needs to finish one race with a three-point advantage over the McLaren man and he will be world champion.
That could even come as soon as Formula One returns from its post-Hockenheim three-week holiday and convenes once more in Hungary, a go-kart track of a circuit on which this year's Ferrari should do well.
Such is Schumacher's luck this year even two exits from the race were not been enough to dent his championship prospects.
The German's first trip back to the pits occurred within seconds of the race start when after slowing to a virtual halt following a gearbox problem, he was rammed at over 130 m.p.h. by Prost's onrushing Lucian Burti. The front of the Brazilian's car exploded in a shower of carbon fibre and spinning wheels and took to the air, eventually coming to rest atop Enrique Bernoldi's Arrows.
Amazingly, all three were left unhurt by the incident and, as the red flags began to flutter to signal a re-start, the drivers scrambled from the wreckage and back to the pits to take their T-cars.
Schumacher made the re-start but that, too, would turn out to be a futile exercise, the German being forced into retirement from second with a fuel pressure problem.
"I'm not too disappointed," he said afterwards. "Of course, I'm very happy for Ralf as this is our home race and it was good to see him win here."
The pleasure was more in seeing both McLarens disappear from the race on a weekend in which Ferrari were outgunned by Williams and struggled in qualifying against the McLarens. In the end, Schumacher's escapes were as positive as could be.
The story of Schumacher continuing to coast unerringly to the championship title was a subplot to the main event of the weekend, however, the dominance of Williams and yesterday it should have been Juan Pablo Montoya playing the lead.
But once again the Colombian, a superstar in the making, was let down by his crew and his machinery. After beating out his team-mate on Saturday to claim his maiden pole position, and after pummelling Ralf into a nine-second deficit in the first half of yesterday's race, Montoya was cruelly dropped to second by a fuel rig problem in his pit stop and then on lap 25 his BMW engine suddenly stalled.
That was the cue for the Williams number two to storm through the pits and into the team's motorhome, shrugging off all attempts at communication as he seethed over his continuing bad fortune.
Later, he regained enough composure to voice his disbelief at events. "I'm so disappointed I can't find the words to describe how I feel," he said. "I had a safe second place and two laps later the engine just went."
With Mika Hakkinen also out with engine failure, the road was left to Ralf Schumacher, the remaining Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello, who finished second, and a host of midfielders who must have felt the heavens were smiling on them yesterday.
While Jean Alesi and the twin Benettons of Jenson Button and Giancarlo Fisichella accounted for the non-podium points, Jacques Villeneuve emerged from the pack to take a deserved third place, a result that added salt to the wounds inflicted on the Jordans.
A difficult weekend for the Irish squad was made all the more harrowing by non-finishes from both Jarno Trulli, who retired on lap 35 with a hydraulic problem, and Ricardo Zonta, who was forced out on lap six after a collision with Jos Verstappen wrecked his nose cone, leaving barge board, suspension and brake duct-damage too great to be repaired.
"This weekend has been a nightmare, and hopefully marks the end of a period of time we want to put behind us," said team boss Eddie Jordan.
"Ricardo had an unfortunate incident with Verstappen which took him out of the race as it damaged the car too badly to continue. Jarno was on a one-stop strategy but unfortunately, he spun trying to defend his position to Panis.
Villeneuve's four points now push Jordan's Honda-powered rivals ahead of the Irish team in the constructor's standings by a point.
Jordan now crash to sixth, the position that last year was deemed a disaster that would not be repeated. There are now just five races left to rescue the team from that ignominy.
Details: German Grand Prix at Hockenheim (45 laps): 1 R Schumacher (Ger) Williams BMW 1hr 18mins 17.873secs; 2 R Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari at 46.100; 3 J Villeneuve (Can) BAR Honda at 1:02.800; 4 G Fisichella (Ita) Benetton Renault at 1:03.400; 5 J Button (Eng) Benetton Renault at 1:05.400; 6 J Alesi (Fra) Prost Acer at 1:13.900; 7 O Panis (Fra) BAR Honda at 1:17.500; 8 E Bernoldi (Bra) Arrows Asiatech at 1 lap; 9 J Verstappen (Ned) Arrows Asiatech at 1 lap; 10 F Alonso (Spa).
Did not finish: J Trulli (Ita) Jordan Honda B 34 laps completed, D Coulthard (Scot) McLaren MercMinardi European at 27 laps, T Marques (Bra) Minardi European 26 laps, JP Montoya (Col) Williams BMW 24 laps, M Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 23 laps, L Burti (Bra) Prost Acer 23 laps, K Raikkonen (Fin) Sauber Petronas 16 laps, E Irvine (Irl) Jaguar 16 laps, M Hakkinen (Fin) McLaren Mercedes 13 laps, R Zonta (Bra) Jordan Honda 7 laps, N Heidfeld (Ger) Sauber Petronas 0 laps, P De La Rosa (Spa) Jaguar 0 laps
Drivers championship: 1 M Schumacher 84pts, 2 Coulthard 47, 3 R Schumacher 41, 4 Barrichello 40, 5 Hakkinen 19, 6 Montoya 15, 7 Villeneuve 11, 8 Heidfeld 10, 9 Trulli & Raikkonen 9, 10 Frentzen 6, 11 Panis 5, 12 Fisichella, Irvine, & Alesi 4, 15 Button 2, 16 Verstappen & de la Rosa 1
Constructors championship: 1 Ferrari 124pts, 2 McLaren 66, 3 Williams 56, 4 Sauber 19, 5 BAR 16, 6 Jordan 15, 7 Benetton 6, 8 Jaguar 5, 9 Prost 4, 10 Arrows 1
