Roger Horton returns from the Nurburgring paddock with a few insights and reflections on the weekend's events.

Once you leave the blandness of the Autobahn, and follow the signs that lead you towards the Nurburgring on any of the twisting B class access roads, a feeling of history grips you. Along these very roads, many of the greats of yesteryear would have driven, on their way to test their skill and bravery against a monster of a track, the like of which we will certainly never see again.

Today's drivers arrive, of course, at a very different destination. The new Nurburgring has virtually nothing in common with its elder and very much more illustrious big brother, other than it is a racetrack around which Grand Prix cars race. The fact that this is not even the German Grand Prix, but the conveniently named 'European' round of the 17-race FIA World Championship, adds to the feeling that something is missing from this Grand Prix weekend.

Not so for the army of Michael Schumacher fans, whose devotion to their hero is almost limitless, and although there may have been an increase in his brother's following after his recent victories, the camping grounds around the 'Ring' is Schumi territory: the other drivers are simply there to make up the numbers in the mind's of his adoring fans.

You can always tell when Michael Schumacher has just performed another miracle on the track. His triumphs are greeted by the ignition of dozens of 'whiz-bang' rockets, of many different types, and they can actually drown out the sound of a V10 on full song. In fact, these fans are so reliable and predictable that it saves you the trouble of following the action on the timing screens completely! When Schumacher goes to P1 the whole place seems to explode, and with the German champion winning from pole the locals had lots of opportunities to expend the full range of their prepared ordinances.

Once again Michael Schumacher and Ferrari's ability to overcome just about every difficulty was on show at this race. Currently the team are working so well that it is hard to see another combination getting their collective acts together quickly enough to force this current Maranello-based outfit into raising a gentle lather, let alone a full blown sweat.

Friday saw Michael working towards his race set-up. Saturday produced an easy pole using just two of his allowed four runs: that meant two sets of tyres saved and come the race that could have proved crucial. The only time it appeared Michael was in any trouble was the very un-Schumacher like panic that gripped him momentarily when his T-car stopped at the far side of the circuit on his first sighting lap prior to the grid formation.

In his haste to depart his stricken car and make it back to the pits, he initially forgot to refit the steering wheel to its normal position to allow the car to be removed by the marshals. He was swiftly stopped and reminded of his obligations, and no harm was done. Then it was then off to commandeer the nearest means of transport to return to the pits, and to the amusement of many in the paddock, that turned out to be a BMW scooter, the owner having conveniently been prepared to toss the keys to the somewhat desperate world champion.

The contest, such as it was, between the two Schumacher brothers prior to Ralf's stop-go penalty was all about tyres. The Bridgestone tyres (on the Ferraris) worked at their best when new, the Michelin ones (on the Williams) with some laps on them, and some reports suggested that the two Williams cars started with tyres that had done around seventeen laps already. By lap ten the gap between the chasing Williams to the leading Ferrari had stabilised at just over three seconds. From there Ralf gradually closed the gap, and just like in Canada, would have moved away if he could have overtaken his brother.

Now, of course we will never know just who would have won this race if Ralf had not erred and collected his penalty. The Ferrari team made some adjustments during the world champion's first stop and afterwards Michael was sure that the changes would have made his car fast enough to win on merit. "In the first stint I was absolutely too slow," Schumacher said. "I had some problems with the balance, and when I came to the pits we changed that, and it was the right thing to do. After the changes the car was very strong."

Sadly, we will never know for sure, but Ralf and the Williams team will get many more opportunities to prove their point, meanwhile his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya put his recent troubles behind him and drove to a confidence boosting second place finish. The Colombian's only scare came on lap 19 when he alerted the team that he had picked up a puncture, but it proved to be a false alarm.

"Juan thought he had picked up a puncture on his left rear on the first section of the lap, but his T2 time was very quick, and by T3 he said it was OK," said his team boss Frank Williams afterwards. "It wasn't a ruse," he added with a smile.

One of the race's minor mysteries is just why the two leading cars chose to make their first stops on the same lap. For Williams it was all very straightforward. Ralf made his stop on the lap that was programmed beforehand into their race plan, and the team confirmed afterwards that he was at the end of his fuel mileage.

Ferrari, however, appeared to react to the Williams stop, and Michael Schumacher made the last-minute decision to enter the pits, as evidenced by the fact that he cut across the white and red marking lines delineating the pitlane entrance. If this were the case it would support the theory that Michael was really struggling with his car at this time, as usually the laptime advantage lies with the car that stays out longest, so he must have feared that even with more fuel, his brother's Williams could have lapped quicker.

Once again the McLarens flattered on Friday, topping the times with both cars, only to disappoint on Saturday, and they then went on to produce a pretty lackluster race day. A slightly bemused Mika Hakkinen could only shrug his shoulders and speculate just why he could only drag his car to sixth on the grid during qualifying "Well from yesterday to today we didn't improve the car, and the others were able to do so, and now they were quicker than us. We had a problem with the rear of the car, we were not able to get the power down on the slow speed exits." In answer to a final question he gave one trademark pauses before saying with some feeling. "Yes I am very disappointed, but I can't change anything now."

Indeed there are many in the F1 paddock struggling to rationalise just why one of the hitherto most consistent teams in the pitlane are suddenly performing so erratically. Obviously the whole Adrian Newey scenario has taken its toll, and it's plain to see that there is a disruption in the normally smooth way the team operates during a race weekend. There are also some suggestions in the paddock that the Bridgestone tyres are being developed in a way that suits Ferrari rather than the English team, although officially the team have no complaints, and others blame the team's current shortcomings for their inability to match Ferrari's pace.

All through this David Coulthard is maintaining his poise with admirable patience, and it is certainly hard to pin any of the blame on him for Michael Schumacher's widening points lead in the championship tables. He is consistently outdriving his twice-champion teammate, and is yet to be responsible for throwing away any chance to add to his points total.

Coulthard, though, was able to be very specific in the reason he felt contributed to his disappointing fifth on the grid. "We are not able to extract the balance out of new tyres, so we don't really get the benefit of using new tyres in qualifying," the Scot said, moments after stepping out of his car. "I did the majority of my running with scrubbed (used) fronts and new rears. I tried one run with new fronts and I was getting a bit of graining by the end of the lap. You give away potential grip by using scrubbed tyres but what you hope to do is to achieve a balance, and get the lap time from there."

In the race Coulthard did a one-stop routine to finish in third place, but it was strictly damage limitation and he was never in a position to trouble the leaders. No wonder team boss Ron Dennis was forced on the defensive after the race, when he said with some feeling, that a third place finish had never felt so good.

So afterwards the thousands of Ferrari fans were able to commence their long trek home happy in the knowledge that Michael Schumacher had pretty much achieved all his objectives for his home race. Unlike the hundreds of rockets that his supporters had fired, and seen briefly rise into the sky only to crash back to earth with a bang, his Ferrari had looked strong and fast throughout and never faltered. It was a textbook performance.