Schu claims his half century

DESPITE the 50th grand prix win of his career in yesterday's French Grand prix at Magny Cours and a 31 point lead in the world drivers championship, Michael Schumacher is hosing down talks of a fourth world championship victory just yet.

"It's a very comfortable lead that we are now in," the Ferrari ace conceded, "but there are still seven races to go, 70 points to give away, so there's no reason to start celebrating before it's done." The defending world champion's sixth win of the season was achieved in classic style once he passed brother Ralf's Williams-BMW at the first round of pit stops.

From that point he was unstoppable, only temporarily giving up the lead to Juan Pablo Montoya in the second Williams during the second round of stops.

Pole qualifier Ralf Schumacher was second 10.399 seconds behind his bother, while Rubens Barrichello was third after a stirring three-stop drive from eighth on the grid in his Ferrari.

Michael Schumacher's closest championship challenger, McLaren-Mercedes' David Coulthard, qualified third and finished fourth after a stop-go penalty for speeding in pitlane.

He fared better than teammate Mika Hakkinen, the two-time world champion unable to start the race because his car failed on the formation lap.

Rounding out the top six points scoring positions were Jarno Trulli (Jordan-Honda) and Nick Heidfeld in a Sauber-Petronas.

Michael Schumacher is now just one win away from equalling the great Alain Prost's record of 51 grand prix victories.

If he wins in Great Britain in two weeks he faces the prospect of going to his home German GP with the chance to be the new record-holder.

"I'm very delighted having achieved win number 50," said Schumacher. "but people seem to misunderstand my feeling about these statistics. I always said they were second priority but they do mean something to me." Ralf Schumacher was philosophical about the result. His first stop was slowed by a struggle to fit one of his rear wheels while his second set of tyres "didn't work at all".

He was also embroiled in a heated mid-race dice with his teammate and said his radio had failed from the start and that he'd heard no orders to pull over. Montoya was later forced to retire from fourth place.

Michelin Motorsport Director Pierre Dupasquier said Ralf Schumacher's tyre problems would be investigated.

"We haven't yet had chance to analyse data from the Williams, but Ralf said quite plainly that his car was difficult to drive on its second set of tyres - and we must get to the bottom of that," Mr Dupasquier said.

"Previously we have had no problems with sets of tyres of the same compound behaving differently." * Australian Mark Webber has become the first driver to win three races in this year's International Formula 3000 Championship, taking the chequered flag in France on Saturday.

Webber, who had qualified second on the grid, overtook pole position starter Tomas Enge of the Czech Republic at the first corner of the 152.85-kilometre race at the Magny Cours track and raced clear to win by almost 7.5 seconds.

The 24-year-old from Queanbeyan, near Canberra, would now be leading the championship except that Enge's teammate, British driver Justin Wilson, passed him on the final lap to finish second and retain the series lead.

While Webber now has 36 championship points, Wilson and Enge - who have each won twice this season - have 37 and 32 points respectively.

RACE RESULTS
1 M Schumacher (Ferrari) 1:33.35.636
2 R Schumacher (Williams) +10.399
3 R Barrichello (Ferrari) +16.381
4 D Coulthard (McLaren) +17.106
5 J Trulli (Jordan) +68.285
6 N Heidfeld (Sauber) +1 lap
7 K Raikkonen (Sauber) +1 lap
8 H-H Frentzen (Jordan) +1 lap
9 O Panis (BAR) +1 lap
10 L Burti (Prost) +1 lap DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP
1 M Schumacher (GER) 78
2 Coulthard (SCO) 47
3 Schumacher (GER) 31
4 Barrichello (BRA) 30
5 J-P Montoya (COL) 12
=6 Trulli (ITA) 9
=6 Heidfeld (UK) 9
=6 Hakkinen (FIN) 9
=9 J Villeneuve (CAN) 7
=9 K Raikkonen (FIN) 7 MANUFACTURERS' CHAMPIONSHIP
1 Ferrari 108
2 McLaren 56
3 Williams 43
4 Sauber 16
5 Jordan 15
6 BAR 12
7 Jaguar 5
8 Prost 3
9 Benetton 1
10 Arrows 1 Next round: British Grand Prix, Silverstone, July 15