FORMULA ONE: Michael Schumacher calls Spa his "living room". And yesterday it was as if the world champion had time to recline in an easy chair, relax and put his feet up as he took a record 10th victory of the season in the Belgian Grand Prix.
It is not that Spa has been tamed. The legendary old circuit still slithers between the Ardennes hills like a viper, still threatens the unwary like the thunderheads that frequently gather over its daunting curves. But battling against Schumacher, his F2002 and almost bespoke Bridgestones, the circuit yesterday cowed under the assault and while others battled through the compression of 185mph Eau Rouge and wrestled for control through 200mph Blanchimont, Schumacher plundered the track's gifts with the ease of a lothario seducing an ingenue.
On Friday and Saturday, the paddock had hummed with the possibility that the Michelin-shod teams could cause an upset, so dominant had they been on Friday and in qualifying. But while McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen claimed a front-row berth, it was Schumacher who stole his first ever pole at Spa. It may have been Michelin runners all the way back to Jacques Villeneuve's grid spot of 12th but the key was the twin Ferraris in first for Schumacher and third for Rubens Barrichello.
The force of will exerted by Schumacher and Barrichello was irresistible and having bustled their way through La Source without incident, the groan of resignation was almost audible from the crowd. A handful of laps later, regularly splurged in the purple colour code which signifies a new fastest lap, and Schumacher was 10 seconds ahead of his team-mate and over 20 ahead of Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya who had dismissed his team-mate Ralf Schumacher on the run down to Eau Rouge and McLaren's Raikkonen on the approach to Les Combes to steal into a podium place.
It was the best the Colombian could hope for. He held third through the first stops and then fended off a strong challenge from fourth-placed Coulthard and fifth-placed Raikkonen in the second round of stops but keeping Coulthard, who had closed to just one second adrift, at bay was the best he could do.
Schumacher in the closing stages throttled back to the one minutes 54s while the chasing pack still pushed on but with a buffer of monstrous proportions in place, he could afford to slow up and smell the roses.
After yesterday's race Schumacher fought for humility, struggled to play down the dominance but was left with a shrug and an admission that the car operates on a different level to all else around it. "The result was better than we expected, as we were not sure what the situation would be in terms of temperatures and tyres," he said. "Our car is simply very good on high speed circuits like this one."
With Schumacher and Barrichello cruising to a sixth one-two of the season, Montoya third and Coulthard settling for fourth behind the Colombian, fifth was claimed by the Ralf Schumacher whose race was damaged by an early spin and then a troubled pit-stop which saw the German engage the wrong button on his steering wheel which lost him time on the exit.
That left a single point to squabble over and and as the late race casualties mounted, with Olivier Panis, Pedro De la Rosa and Kimi Raikkonen all falling by the wayside, it was Eddie Irvine who held off allcomers to seal Jaguar's first point since the opening race of the season, scored when the Irishman took fourth in Australia.
For Jordan it was a case of what might have been. A disastrous qualifying session saw Giancarlo Fisichella and Takuma Sato starting from 14th and 16th but a bold one-stop strategy for Fisichella put the Italian within reach of the point in eighth with half a dozen laps to go. But on lap 39, Fishichella's Honda engine let go in a spectacular blast of flame and smoke and Jordan's hopes were dashed.
Team-mate Sato brought his car home for the sixth time in nine races but 11th and last was little consolation.
