Michael Schumacher's record breaking progress continued in San Marino today with a perfect lights-to-flag victory in Imola with Ferrari team mate Rubens Barrichello second.  This was his 56th Grand Prix win, starting from his 45th pole position and was a record breaking 97th race for Ferrari - more races for Ferrari than any driver in its history.

The reigning World Champion dominated throughout, powering into the lead at the start whilst the Williams of brother Ralf attempted to overtake both the Ferraris on the run down to Tamburello chicane.  Barrichello put up a good fight throughout but ultimately was not helped by a long pit stop when one of the Ferrari mechanics had problems with a wheel nut gun, and had to settle for second.

Ralf Schumacher tried hard to race the Ferrari's, finishing 1.8s behind Barrichello at the end, while Juan Pablo Montoya was a distant fourth, never really in the race for the front and unusually of the pace.  Jensen Button drove superbly to overhaul the McLaren of David Coulthard during the e second pit stops, while the second McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen was retired by the team when telemetry showed that exhaust gases were overheating the rear suspension.  Part of Raikkonen's exhaust appeared to have become dislodged during the race.

Jacques Villeneuve narrowly missed out on a points finish for BAR Honda, the French Canadian driving well and giving the team a further boost.  Team mate Olivier Panis was one of the ten retirements during the races, the others being both Arrows, Jordans, Toyotas and the Jaguars.

The retirement of the two Jordan Hondas came as a bitter blow to team boss Eddie Jordan who said: "This was a race weekend to forget.  We will have a post mortem about it to get to the bottom of where our problems lie.  We have a big hill to climb but we have to do it - and we will do it."

The Championship is headed by Michael Schumacher with 34 points as against 20 for his brother Ralf, with Montoya 3rd, Button a good 4th and Barrichello 5th.  In the Constructors World Championship Ferrari enjoys a three point lead over Williams, 40 to 37, while McLaren holds a distant third with amere 9 points after four races.  Next comes Renault on 8 points.

The Championship now heads to Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix in two weeks time, where DHL Jordan Honda will again attempt to break its duck and score its first points of the season.