IMOLA, Italy, 26 April 2004 — World champion Michael Schumacher equaled his best start to a Formula One season here yesterday with his fourth consecutive victory of the year and a record sixth win in the San Marino Grand Prix.
German Schumacher started second behind Jenson Button after missing pole for the first time this season but he took the lead in the first pit stops and never looked back to continue his perfect record with another dominant drive.
Briton Button, who scored his first Formula One podium just two races before in Malaysia, achieved his best ever result with second after a lonely race while Juan Pablo Montoya claimed third for Williams.
But on a day when the sport remembered Brazilian great Ayrton Senna, ten years after his death here in 1994, it was his successor, Schumacher, who displayed his supreme talent to take his points tally to 40 with a sublime victory.
Renault duo Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli claimed fourth and fifth after holding off a late push from Schumacher’s sixth-placed teammate Rubens Barrichello.
German Ralf Schumacher, in the second Williams, finished seventh and Kimi Raikkonen, of McLaren, was promoted to the final points-scoring place when the engine in Takuma Sato’s BAR-Honda blew up just six laps from the end. Button made a perfect start while Schumacher dropped into the clutches of Montoya, who attempted to get around the Ferrari at the Tosa corner but was forced wide onto the grass.
Montoya forced Ralf Schumacher onto the grass on the other side of the track as he tried to protect third place at the start while Coulthard hit a Renault and ploughed off the track before returning to the pits.
At the end of the first lap Button had a 2.7-second lead but Schumacher soon closed as the leading duo strode off into the distance more than seven seconds ahead of Montoya.
Italian Giorgio Pantano became the first retirement of the race when the debutant parked his Jordan on the seventh lap. Montoya started the first round of pit stops at the end of lap eight.
Button pitted to hand Schumacher the lead at the end of lap nine and was stationary for 9.7 seconds in a long stop. Schumacher then put in two record lap times and retained the lead after a stop 2.1 seconds quicker than BAR on lap 11. By the end of the 16th lap Schumacher’s lead over Button was just less than 10 seconds with Montoya, Trulli, Ralf Schumacher, Barrichello, Alonso and Sato completing the top eight. Button stopped for the second time on lap 27 and was stationary for 8.4 seconds before Schumacher, with a lead of 18.6 seconds, came in for a typically perfect 7.5-second stop one lap later. The Briton gained three seconds in the in-and-out laps and, after running slower than Schumacher in the second stint, he returned to the pace of the leading Ferrari.
