Nürburg, 7th May

Michael Schumacher scored a second successive tactical victory in Sunday's 60 lap European Grand Prix. He was led by Fernando Alonso for the first 38 laps, but then  Schumacher stopped three laps later than the reigning World Champion at the second round of stops and after a succession of quick laps, emerged 5.8s ahead of the Renault driver to take a popular victory. With Felipe Massa  finishing a close third, Ferrari moved five points closer to Renault in the Constructors' championship.
At the start, Alonso went straight into the lead in sunny conditions while the two Ferraris were side by side for second, Michael taking the position from his teammate. Jenson Button jumped into fourth place from sixth, Kimi Raikkonen remained fifth, while Jarno Trulli moved up one place to sixth. Rubens Barrichello dropped three places to seventh from Jacques Villeneuve who picked up one place at the start. A collision between David Coulthard and Vitantonio Liuzzi briefly brought out the safety car.
On lap four, Raikkonen overtook Button for fourth place, but already Alonso and the Ferraris were easing away. Raikkonen tried to stay with them, leaving Button in fourth from Trulli and then Barrichello.


Alonso briefly managed to pull away from Michael towards the end of the stint, but on lap 17 he dived for the pits and his first pit stop, Massa coming in on the same lap. Michael came in a lap later and rejoined just behind Alonso again. On lap 24, Michael had a slight fright when he ran wide, and Alonso's lead widened to over two seconds. Raikkonen had come into the pits a lap earlier, the last of the front runners to stop.
In the second stint, Michael steadily cut Alonso's lead and as they neared the second round of  pit stops, the pair set a succession of fastest laps. Alonso pitted on lap 38, but Michael didn't come in for another three laps, and when he went back out again, he was ahead of Alonso by 5.8s. The gap rose to just over nine seconds during the final stint, eventually narrowing to just over three seconds in the closing stages.
By this time, however, Felipe Massa had begun to threaten Alonso. The Brazilian had been losing time to his teammate during the end of the second stint, but after the stop, he found himself 7.2s behind Alonso. However, he was soon cutting that gap, so that it was under three seconds with nine laps remaining.
Massa, himself, however, was coming under pressure from Raikkonen in fourth place. The McLaren driver was soon on Massa's tail with four laps to go, and the pair closed right up on Alonso too, but none of them was able to challenge and they finished as they started that final stint, with Raikkonen claiming fourth place.
The rest were left far behind. Barrichello eventually took fifth place, just ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella, but they were only just ahead of Nico Rosberg who finished seventh after suffering an engine penalty of ten places and starting last on the grid. Villeneuve claimed the final point.
Fernando Alonso now has 44 points from two wins and three seconds, while Michael Schumacher is second with 31 points from two wins, a second and a sixth. Raikkonen is third with 23 points.