Michael Schumacher’s stranglehold on the 2004 world championship continued here today as he claimed his ninth victory of the season in the French Grand Prix. Ferrari’s Schumacher, whose only defeat this year came in Monaco, scored his seventh win in the event and the 79th of his career after a decision to change to a four-stop strategy paid dividends. The six-time world champion sat behind Renault’s Fernando Alonso for the first 29 laps before taking the lead and he secured the race with his fourth stop 12 laps from the end. He came home 8.3 seconds clear of pole-sitter Alonso to extend his lead in the championship standings to 22 points over Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello. Alonso’s Italian team-mate Jarno Trulli lost third place on the penultimate corner when he allowed Brazilian Rubens Barrichello to force his way past to take the final place on the podium for Ferrari. Trulli ended fourth with Bar-Honda’s Jenson Button fifth and Renault moved 17 points clear of Bar-Honda in the race for second place in the constructors’ championship behind runaway leaders Ferrari. Scot David Coulthard and Finn Kimi Raikkonen claimed sixth and seventh places for McLaren, the third successive double points finish for the team and a solid debut for the new MP4-19B car. Williams’ Juan Pablo Montoya, of Colombia, took the final point in eighth but his team-mate Marc Gene, deputising for the injured Ralf Schumacher, could only finish 10th. Alonso made the perfect getaway to take the lead from Schumacher, and Trulli moved up to third after passing Button and Coulthard in a quick start. Schumacher pitted from second place at the end of lap 11 and Alonso came in three laps later for his first stop and emerged ahead of Ferrari’s world champion.
