FORMULA 1: A cruel man, and there are many of them who regularly sit and spit anti-Ferrari oaths and curses into their champagne in the paddock's motorhomes, sniped that Michael Schumacher's gesture of signing over his spare car to factotum-in-chief Rubens Barrichello for the rest of the season was surely a sign the five-time world champion was going to bow out of yesterday's German Grand Prix with his first retirement in 17 races. Justin Hynes reports from Hockenheim

This, of course, is commonly known as clutching at straws. After 67 laps at the heavily redesigned Hockenheimring, the star was, as ever, Michael Schumacher.

After claiming an aggressively won pole position on Saturday, dismissing provisional pole times from Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher, the Ferrari number one gave himself the perfect platform to treat the 120,000 Ferrari fanatics at the circuit to a showboating display of control, timing and dominance.

From the start, on the clean side of the track, Schumacher was in the ascendant. He kept his second-placed brother at bay and with third-placed Barrichello tucked in behind the Williams, Schumacher had room to stretch his legs and take in the sea of red flags fluttering in the faint breeze that stirred the boiling air around the circuit.

Even when hampered in his first stint of three by blistering Bridgestone tyres, Ralf Schumacher couldn't get near - undone by a series of mishaps that included being held up by Villeneuve's crumbling BAR on the way to his first stop, a pit-lane cock-up on his second stop that saw his car linger a couple of crucial seconds after the crew had finished their tyre and fuel work, and finally an unscheduled stop to top up the engine's pneumatic valve drive.

That dropped the younger Schumacher to third and boosted his team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya to second. Montoya would have been expected to mount a challenge, but his promotion occurred just three laps out and despite running close to Schumacher's times for the last two thirds of the race, Montoya had already drifted out of touch, his race irrevocably damaged by a start which saw him bogged down on the dirty side of the track and passed by McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen.

The McLaren, noticeably slower than the Williams and Ferraris, left Montoya looking at a 14-second deficit to the front three by the end of lap 10. Montoya's patience then ran out and through the next lap he battered Raikkonen into submission.

The Finn is no bum-a-month pug, though, and put up a monumental defence, forcing Montoya wide, tucking inside to hug the racing line when challenged and using his slower machine like a bulwark to prop his under-siege fourth place.

The Colombian wouldn't be denied though and despite sliding wide over the kerbs pushed back as hard as he had been shoved and sent Raikkonen wide into the following left hander, leaving himself the better exit and as the pair went into Sachskurve, Montoya sealed the move with the extra power of his Williams. He then passed Barrichello in the first round of pit stops and claimed second when his team-mate was forced into his late stop.

Schumacher admitted winning at home was pleasing. "Everybody knows I haven't won here for Ferrari, in the seven years I've been driving for the team," he said. "So, this is without words, to be honest, because we have achieved so much this year and this is just amazing.

"The team did a fantastic job. It was a very tight battle between Ralf and myself but I think the German fans really loved that. It's a shame what happened to Ralf as it would have been nice to have two Schumachers in first and second but I'm sure we'll get more opportunities."

Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella will also be hoping that opportunity comes knocking again soon. The Italian, whose fitness to race in the aftermath of his accident at last week's French GP had been in some doubt, pulled out a superb qualifying performance on Saturday to take sixth on the grid with Honda's uprated engine.

But the use of the more powerful unit to full effect in the race was denied him as he suffered a sequence of problems that destroyed his race. "I had a problem with the clutch on my first pit stop and then the team had trouble with the right front wheel, so I lost quite a bit of time," he said. "The car was driving quite well, so it's a shame."

The shame was compounded on lap 60 when his engine blew as he attempted to carve his way back through the lower reaches of the top ten. But the performance of team-mate Takuma Sato, who enjoyed a strong run from 12th to eighth demonstrated that Honda have begun to drag the kind of power from their less-than-convincing RA002E powerplant needed to compete at the sharp end of the race action. Unfortunately for Eddie Jordan, it may just be too late.

"Takuma drove a good race and did well to go from 12th to eighth. I am hopeful for the future because our performance has improved, but I'm disappointed that we didn't come away from this race with a couple of points."

It was another disappointing day fro Eddie Irvine too, as his Jaguar succumbed to a host of problems that eventually forced him out of the race. "That was a very difficult race which saw me suffer problem after problem," said Irvine. Eventually he was forced to retire with brake difficulties on lap 57.

With the Schumachers and Montoya occupying the podium, fourth place went to Barrichello - the Brazilian's chance of fighting back against Montoya wrecked when in his second stop his fuel filler cap failed to open and he was stranded for 20 seconds. David Coulthard upheld McLaren's honour after Raikkonen retired with car damage occasioned by a puncture, and Nick Heidfeld took the sixth and the final point, his first at his home grand prix.

The Formula One circus goes into a three-week break before the season's final five-race onslaught begins in Budapest.

1 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1 hour 27 mins 52.078secs 10 points

2 Juan Pablo Montoya (Col) Williams at 10.503secs 6points

3 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Williams at 14.466 4 points

4 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari at 23.195 3 points

6 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Sauber at one lap 1 point

ALSO FINISHED

7 Felipe Massa (Bra) Sauber at one lap

8 Takuma Sato (Jap) Jordan at one lap

9 Mika Salo (Fin) Toyota at one lap

DID NOT FINISH:

Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Jordan (59 laps), Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren (59 laps), Eddie Irvine (NIrl) Jaguar (57 laps), Enrique Bernoldi (Bra) Arrows (48 laps), Olivier Panis (Fra) British American Racing (39 laps)

Jarno Trulli (Ita) Renault (36 laps),Jacques Villeneuve (Can) British American Racing (27 laps), Jenson Button (Bri) Renault (24 laps), Allan McNish (Bri) Toyota (23 laps), Mark Webber (Aus) Minardi (23 laps), Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Ger) Arrows (18 laps), Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) Jaguar (0 laps)

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS - DRIVERS

1 M Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 106pts

2 Montoya (Col) Williams 40

3 R Schumacher (Ger) Williams 36

4 Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 35

5 Coulthard (Bri) McLaren 32

6 Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 17

7 Button (Bri) Renault 11

8 Heidfeld (Ger) Sauber 7

9 Fisichella (Ita) Jordan 6

10 Trulli (Ita) Renault 4

Massa (Bra) Sauber 4

12 Villeneuve (Can) BAR 3

12 Irvine (NIrl) Jaguar Racing 3

14 Panis (Fra) BAR 2

Webber (Aus) Minardi 2

Salo (Fin) Toyota2

Frentzen (Ger) Arrows 2

MANUFACTURERS' STANDINGS

1 Ferrari 141pts

2 Williams-BMW 76

3 McLaren-Mercedes49

4 Renault 15

5 Sauber 11

6 Jordan-Honda 6

7 BAR Honda 5

8 Jaguar Racing 3

9 KL Minardi 2

Toyota Racing 2

Orange Arrows 2