Schumacher wins Canadian Grand Prix

MONTREAL - Michael Schumacher took a long swig of champagne, then sprayed some on his younger brother. Finally back on top of the Formula One standings, Schumacher was ready to celebrate.\nSchumacher won his fourth race of the season and finally passed Kimi Raikkonen for the lead in the driver standings by beating his brother, Ralf, in the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday.\nSchumacher, seeking his record sixth F1 world championship, now has won six times on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The German driver gained the maximum 10 points for this victory and now has scored 999 for his career.\n"As for having 999 points, in Germany that number means you have to buy everyone a drink," he joked. "So we will see what happens tonight."\nSchumacher started third but took over the lead after his first pit stop. He and Ralf had been running 1-2 when Ralf ducked off the track for service on the 20th lap.\nMichael pitted on the next lap, then raced his Ferrari off the service road to get back on the race track an instant before Ralf came by. He took over the lead when Fernando Alonso had to make his stop, and because passing is so difficult on the 2.709-mile, 15-turn track, no one ever challenged him the rest of the way.\n"The mechanics did a great job in the pit stop to put me in the lead," he said. "This was the ideal result at the end of a very tough and tight race."\nRalf Schumacher, who started from the pole, finished second for Williams-BMW. It was a reverse finishing order from 2001 when Ralf won and Michael finished second.\n"It's obviously disappointing," Ralf said. "But in 2001 I won it like this, now it is his turn."\nJuan Pablo Montoya, Ralf Schumacher's teammate at Williams, was third but irritated because he lost a chance to challenge for his second consecutive victory when he spun on the second lap.\n"I was too close to Ralf when I braked and I just braked too late and I spun. It was my fault completely," Montoya said. "It is a shame that we had the potential to win the race and I threw it away."\nFernando Alonso was fourth for Renault and the top four cars were all running nearly nose-to-tail at the finish, a rarity in F1. But Ralf Schumacher said it was impossible to even attempt a pass on the leader.\n"I was never close enough to even try it," Ralf said. "Maybe some might think I didn't try it, but I couldn't."\nThe entire complexion of the race was changed by Montoya's spin in Turn 15. That allowed Michael Schumacher to move into second, splitting up the Williams teammates after they started in first and second, and rapidly close the gap on his younger brother.\n"Without that spin, I don't think Michael would have gotten by Juan," said Williams technical director Patrick Head. "And it would have been a tussle between Ralf and Juan at the end."\nInstead, it was Michael Schumacher on top of the podium again for the second consecutive year and back in control of the driver standings after eight of 16 races.\nSchumacher has won three straight championships and had taken the points lead very early in each of those seasons.\nBut this year he had to contend with the 23-year-old Raikkonen, who won his first race earlier this season and took control of the driver standings after the second event, capitalizing on early season struggles by Schumacher and Ferrari.\nBut Michael Schumacher has been closing in since and trailed Raikkonen by just four points at the start of the race. Now he is three points ahead.\n"This season is going to be a long one, and we knew that at the beginning," Schumacher said. "Of course it is important to be leading the championship in what I have always said will be a hard season and with a tough fight to the end."\nRaikkonen, though, did little to help himself. He wrecked his McLaren Mercedes on Saturday's qualifying lap and had to start last on the grid.\nHis team elected to start the race on pit road, where he was able to take four new tires and refuel the car as soon as the race began. Because he had a full tank of fuel, he was able to gain positions when other cars had to duck off for their pit stops.\nHe had moved all the way up to fifth, but his day was ruined when his tire lost its tread and split off the car on the 33rd lap. He recovered, slightly, to finish sixth and earn just three points.\n"Today's result is not a disaster at all and the gap to Michael is only three points with plenty more races to go," Raikkonen said.\nAs usual, it was a horrible race for hometown hero Jacque Villeneuve, who failed to finish on the track named after his late father for the fifth consecutive year. He apparently had a problem with the brakes on his BAR-Honda and retired after 15 laps.\nHe was in street clothes walking through the paddock with his fingers plugging his ears as the field roared by him.