Next races will determine what Schumi's Indy win is worth

By Volker Gundrum Jul 3, 2006, 9:55 GMT

Indianapolis - Michael Schumacher may have won the United States Grand Prix at a canter, but it remains to be seen whether he can really challenge Fernando Alonso for the world title.

Everything simply spoke in Ferrari's favour at Sunday's race and they duly picked up first and second place from Schumacher and Felipe Massa, with struggling Alonso trailing in fifth place in a Renault.

Ferrari have performed traditionally well at the Indy speedway, where Schumacher got his fourth win in a row and fifth overall.

Renault and the other Michelin teams had to be content with a conservative approach by the French tyre makers after the fiasco of 2005 when all Michelin cars withdrew over tyre safety concerns.

'This all served to exaggerate Ferrari's performance advantage on a circuit where their Bridgestone tyres had always performed extremely well,' said British daily The Guardian on Monday.

'Schumacher stays in Alonso's rear-view mirror,' read the headline of the story, as the German reduced the gap from 25 to 19 points with eight races left.

Germany's Bild said: 'Schumi doesn't give up. Can we dream of the title again?'

Schumacher was naturally delighted that everything went his way and reiterated that he will fight for an eighth title as long as there is a mathematical chance.

'The six points we could make up were very important for the title race. We can only hope to keep some of the edge we had this weekend and transform it into the European season,' Schumacher said.

'There's still a long way to go eight races so there are 80 points still to count. It (the deficit) is a lot, in a way, but it's not impossible at all, especially you can see how something can come in between, Felipe being very strong and yeah, I think we can do it.'

But Alonso, who came to Indianapolis with four straight wins for a season total of six, was unconcerned that he missed the podium for the first time in 16 races, saying he did 'the maximum possible.

'Looking back to last year, I scored zero points in North America; this year, I have scored 14 and my championship position is still very strong. That's a big reason to stay positive,' he said.

'Ferrari and Bridgestone were quicker than us today but in ten races, we have had the better tyres for nine of them, so I am not worried for the next Grands Prix. I am already looking forward to the next race, where I think we will see a more usual balance of competitiveness between Renault and Ferrari.'

That will be Michelin's home event in France on July 16 at Magny Cours which Schumacher has won seven times and Alonso last year.

Others will also hope to do better there than Sunday, when seven cars crashed out in the opening lap and just nine of 22 finished.

That applies especially to McLaren-Mercedes who were not happy when Juan Pablo Montoya drove into Kimi Raikkonen in the second turn which saw both eliminated.

The drivers blamed each other while Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug simply said: 'It's like a pub brawl where it's also difficult to determine who started it.'