Schumacher two wins
away from title

Alan Baldwin

Two more wins is all that Ferrari's Michael Schumacher needs to secure his fourth Formula One world title in eight years.

McLaren's David Coulthard attempted a smile at Silverstone on Sunday after colliding with Italian Jarno Trulli's Jordan at the first corner of the British Grand Prix and lasting just three laps.

But he had to recognise that his title hopes, if not completely over the horizon, had become little more than a speck in the distance.

"It's getting further away, you can't deny that, but I absolutely refuse to accept defeat before he's got it clinched and got the championship because anything can happen in this business," said the Scot.

"It's only fair, it's only sporting that he has something go wrong at Hockenheim."

The German Grand Prix at Hockenheim is next up in two weeks' time and Schumacher goes into his home race enjoying a 37-point lead over Coulthard -- his only title rival -- with six rounds remaining.

Coincidentally, two more wins are also all he needs to overtake the record of 51 Grand Prix victories that France's Alain Prost set -- at Hockenheim -- in 1993.

In theory, both title and record could be secured at the race after Hockenheim, the Hungarian Grand Prix next month.

Schumacher has 84 points while Coulthard is on 47, so if the German takes 20 points from the next two races Coulthard cannot catch him up, even if he is also runner-up in both and wins the last four races of the season.

FATE

It does not take a brain surgeon to work out that Coulthard's hopes are in the hands of fate and luck has been smiling on the German lately.

Schumacher has won 10 of the last 15 races and, although Coulthard's team mate Mika Hakkinen won at Silverstone to mark his return to form, the German has still won more than half of the races this season.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis admitted he had mixed feelings about celebrating Hakkinen's victory while his other driver's ambitions had suffered such a severe setback.

"The drivers' championship is, I fear, more difficult. It's not over," he said.

"The constructors' is a much greater open issue...We are fighting both but of the two, that (the constructors' crown) is going to be a little easier to achieve than the drivers' championship."

Ferrari have 118 points to McLaren's 66 after the British Grand Prix.

"If Michael finishes all the races we are under no illusions that it's going to be tough. But a couple of difficult results for him and it could quickly swing," said Dennis.

There are scant crumbs of comfort on offer there, with Schumacher finishing 16 of the last 17 races in the top two and only once failing to score due to mechanical failure.

OFF DAY

But Ferrari had a rare off day at Silverstone on Sunday, despite Schumacher's second place and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello finishing third.

Whereas Hakkinen started the race light on fuel with a two-stop strategy, the Ferraris went for one stop and more fuel and paid the price.

McLaren seized on that as a sign that maybe there was a weak spot in Ferrari's armour after all.

"Clearly Ferrari were completely on the wrong strategy, the fuel effect made them that much slower plus they obviously had some problems as well," said Coulthard.

"Ferrari did a particularly bad job and that made us look even better," agreed Dennis happily. "Throughout 50 percent of the race the biggest problem we had was to slow Mika down."

"If I had my worst weekend and out of it came a second and a third, I'd probably be pretty happy. But most certainly their strategy was completely wrong.

"I don't think anyone in the team would argue to the contrary and it's a bit of a mystery to us as to why they even considered it."