Motorsport/French Grand Prix:  Michael Schumacher and the Ferrari team continued their remorseless assault on the Formula One record books yesterday as the French Grand Prix became the 79th victory of the six-times world champion's spectacular career, and his ninth out of 10 races this season, writes Alan Henry at Magny-Cours

He finished 8.329 sec ahead of Fernando Alonso's Renault R24, with Rubens Barrichello forcing the second Ferrari ahead of Jarno Trulli's Renault within sight of the chequered flag to claim third. Jenson Button wound up a disappointed fifth after a problem with his BAR-Honda's anti-stall mechanism cost him a crucial second at his final refuelling stop, preventing him from getting out ahead of Trulli and Barrichello.

It looked as though Schumacher had a race on his hands after Alonso delighted the French fans by planting the Renault on pole position ahead of the Ferrari and led for the first 32 laps. But Ferrari, realising they were in trouble, went up a gear and switched Schumacher from a three- to a four-stop refuelling strategy, reasoning that the light fuel load would offer the potential for the searing sequence of quick laps which would be needed for him to come out of his final stop ahead of the French car.

In the 10 laps up to his fourth refuelling stop at the Circuit de Nevers, Schumacher had to stretch his lead over Alonso to at least 10 seconds if he was to be sure of consolidating his advantage. He duly delivered by producing a series of laps in the 1 min 15.5 sec bracket, while Alonso was struggling to break the 1 min 17 sec barrier. That enabled him to emerge from his fourth stop, with 12 of the race's 70 laps to run, some 8.2 seconds ahead of the Spaniard, after which he eased to the chequered flag.

"The strategy and the precision of the team in the pit stops were fantastic today," said the German. "Before the start I was not so optimistic but it became clear that our Bridgestone tyres were good at the end of their stints, which was not the case with the opposition's, so I was able to close the gap before the stops.

"Then, after the second stop, we decided to switch to a four-stop strategy. I had nothing to lose and it was a case of no risk, no fun. I only accepted I could win five laps before my final pit stop when the team told me I had enough of a gap to keep the lead."

For Alonso it was a hugely disappointing result. He had carried the battle to Schumacher more convincingly that anybody this year, apart from his team-mate Trulli at Monaco.

Schumacher was running half a second behind Alonso when he made his first refuelling stop at the end of lap 11. Alonso stayed out until lap 14 before coming in for his first stop, but when he came out still four seconds ahead of Schumacher the Ferrari camp went on red alert, did their calculations and brought their driver in for his second stop on lap 29.

After going into the lead when Alonso made his second stop on lap 32, Schumacher stopped again for a quick top-up on lap 42 before the epic sprint to lap 58, making his fourth stop when he finally had the race in the bag.

Behind Alonso there was a three-car battle for third, which was resolved only on the penultimate corner of the final lap when Barrichello, who had started from 10th on the grid after a hydraulic problem in qualifying, forced his way ahead of Trulli.

The new McLaren-Mercedes MP4/19Bs of David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen finished sixth and seventh, demonstrating much-improved form compared with the car the team had used since the start of the season.

Guardian Service

FRENCH GRAND PRIX Magny-Cours (after 70 laps):

1. M Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1:30:18.133 2. F Alonso (Esp) Renault 8.3 seconds behind 3. R Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 31.6 4. J Trulli (Ita) Renault 32.0 5. J Button (Gbr) BAR 32.4 6. D Coulthard (Gbr) McLaren 35.5 7. K Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 36.2 8. J Montoya (Col) Williams 43.4 9. M Webber (Aus) Jaguar 52.3 10. M Gene (Esp) Williams 58.1 11. C Klien (Aut) Jaguar 1 lap behind 12. G Fisichella (Ita) Sauber 1 lap 13. F Massa (Bra) Sauber 1 lap 14. C da Matta (Bra) Toyota 1 lap 15. O Panis (Fra) Toyota 2 laps 16. N Heidfeld (Ger) Jordan 2 laps 17. G Pantano (Ita) Jordan 3 laps 18. G Bruni (Ita) Minardi 4 laps. Not classified (did not finish): T Sato (Jap) BAR, Z Baumgartner (Hun) Minardi.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Drivers' Championship: 1 M Schumacher 90pts, 2 R Barrichello 68, 3 J Button 48, 4 J Trulli 46, 5 F Alonso 33, 6 J Montoya 25, 7 T Sato 14, 8 D Coulthard 12, 9 R Schumacher 12, 10 G Fisichella 10, 11 K Raikkonen 10, 12 F Massa 5, 13 O Panis 5, 14 C Da Matta 3, 15 M Webber 3, 16 N Heidfeld 3, 17 T Glock 2, 18 Z Baumgartner 1

Manufacturers' Championship: 1 Ferrari 158pts, 2 Renault 79, 3 BAR Honda 62, 4 Williams BMW 37, 5 McLaren Mercedes 22, 6 Sauber Petronas 15, 7 Toyota 8, 8 Jordan Cosworth 5, 9 Jaguar 3, 10 Minardi Cosworth 1.