Motorsport: Schumacher blasts title race wide open with win

HOCKENHEIM, Germany - Ferrari's German driver Michael Schumacher has blasted the Formula One title race wide open with a commanding one-two victory in his home German Grand Prix.

While the 37-year-old celebrated the 89th victory of his incredible career, serenaded by air-horns and his jubilant army of red-shirted fans, Renault's world champion Fernando Alonso limped home fifth.

The Spaniard's overall lead was slashed from 17 points to 11, leaving his championship hopes on a knife-edge with six races remaining and barely time to breathe before the next clash in Hungary in a week's time.

"The next races won't present any problems for us," said Schumacher.

"If we can keep this up, the championship will be really, really exciting. We hope to have our nose in front at the end."

Renault's lead over Ferrari was cut to 10 points in the constructors' championship.

In what could be his final race appearance in Germany, with his manager Willi Weber advising him to retire if he wins the title, Schumacher took the lead after 10 laps when McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen pitted.

The rest was straightforward. Schumacher's third win in a row, and fifth of the season, was one of his most important on what the seven-times champion could only describe as a "superb weekend".

On a blazingly hot afternoon, Schumacher and Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa were in a race of their own as they anchored the team's second one-two finish in three starts and tyre partner Bridgestone's 100th grand prix success.

They crossed the line in close formation, just 0.7 seconds apart, with Schumacher becoming the first driver to win the German Grand Prix four times.

"We have the edge on the other guys for three races," declared Schumacher. "We have to keep this advantage for as long as we can.

"The numbers are very important but at the moment, probably the most important is 11. And it's 11 points left in terms of the championship lead for Fernando.

"We had a superb weekend, our car just functioned really great," he said.

"It's the right moment in time, where we need to have such a performance in order to bring down the gap in the championship and keep pressure on."

Raikkonen, who had started on pole, was out of sight in third place and 13.2 seconds behind as he ended a jinx and finished at engine partner Mercedes' home track for the first time in six attempts.

"Bridgestone have a slight advantage, but you could say we're up there," said Mercedes motorsport director Norbert Haug.

"We're going on the right way. We were clearly behind Renault before and now we're clearly in front of them. We'll see what happens now."

Alonso, who had qualified a disappointing seventh on his 25th birthday, made up two places at the start but then faded and was never in contention.

He has 100 points to Schumacher's 89.

The Spaniard would have been staring at his worst result in almost a year had Australian Mark Webber, wrestling every scrap of performance from his Williams, not retired eight laps from the finish while ahead of him.

Alonso also survived a big scare five laps from the end when he went wide, the car bucking and jumping over the gravel before he regained the track just in front of Italian team mate Giancarlo Fisichella.

Briton Jenson Button was fourth for Honda, ending a run of five races without points.

Fisichella finished sixth, with Toyota's Italian Jarno Trulli seventh and Austrian Christian Klien taking the final point for Red Bull.

Germany's Nico Rosberg failed to get past the first lap, crashing his Williams into the tyre wall, while Canadian Jacques Villeneuve also had a crash in the BMW Sauber.

- REUTERS