Schumacher racks up Ferrari's 150th win.

Michael Schumacher took Ferrari's 150th grand prix victory when he won the Canadian Grand Prix for the fifth time in his career.

The German's 1.1secs margin at the chequered flag belied a dominant performance, in which the gap to second dropped from 21secs in the last 13 laps of the race as Schumacher controlled the pace. Although he lost a place to team-mate Rubens Barrichello at the start, the world champion benefited from an early safety car period to make full use of his one-stop strategy, and was able to inherit the lead when both Barrichello and polesitter Juan Montoya had to stop a second time. The Colombian's retirement late in the day simply meant that Schumacher could cruise to the flag.

"I am very happy with this result and the package we had today," he said, "Ferrari's 150th win is very special and I take this opportunity to thank our test team. They are always in the background and I am very happy to have these guys behind me. All of them, Luca Badoer, Luciano Burti and all the engineers and mechanics do a fantastic job."

Schumacher admitted that he had not expected to drop down to third at the start, but explained that, equally, he was not going to jeopardise his team-mate's chances of success.

"I did not expect Rubens to come past me so quickly at the start, but he was on the clean side of the track and had a better end to his acceleration," the German explained, "I knew he was on a two-stop, so I did not make life difficult.

"The safety car worked in my favour, even if I don't understand why they had to use it. I kept a good pace as we knew Montoya was on a two-stop, but I could not ease up until I knew I would be in front of him after his second stop. Only in the final laps did I slow down to save the car and brakes."

"This was a great result today," echoed team boss Jean Todt, "The team did a fantastic job and the cars were at the best on a track which is very tough in reliability
terms."