To score a record seventh victory at the Canadian Grand Prix last Sunday, World Champion Michael Schumacher pushed just as much as it was needed. And again, it paid off for the Ferrari driver, who grabbed a 'slow and steady' win in Montreal. Atlas F1's Richard Barnes analyses Schumacher's triumph

Another Sunday, another win, another record as Michael Schumacher became the first F1 driver ever to win the same Grand Prix seven times. Yet, even with the Championship already looking settled and victory now almost a ritual certainty, Schumacher should draw particular satisfaction from this performance in Montreal.

'Slow and steady' wins are never the most memorable or eye-catching races for the fans, but are immensely satisfying for the drivers. With its excessive demands on brakes, the Montreal circuit requires a concerted, considered and conservative approach over the full race distance. It's about reeling off a series of consistent and car-preserving laps, rather than lighting up the timesheets with individual hotlaps. That dovetails perfectly with the style that Schumacher has adopted in the latter half of his career, and it worked to perfection again on Sunday.

Of Schumacher's seven Canadian victories, the last three (2002-4) have been particularly notable because the German failed to achieve pole position or fastest race lap in any of them. Instead, he has relied on a mixture of strategy, good fortune and stressing his car only as much as necessary to secure the win. In 2002, he gambled on a single-stopper that, with a bit of help from the Safety Car period early in the race, saw him comfortably past pole-sitter and early race leader Juan Pablo Montoya. When Montoya's engine blew 14 laps from the finish, Schumacher could nurse the car over the final stint, allowing McLaren's David Coulthard to close his lead to around one second by the chequered flag.

Last year, Schumacher played a more conventional strategy, running the same two-stop race as his major rivals. After he'd run a crucial one lap longer than brother Ralf in the first stint, turning in his customary blistering in- and out-lap to snatch track position during the stops, Schumacher then did only enough to prevent Ralf getting past. The pace was measured enough during the final phase of the race that both Juan Pablo Montoya and Renault's Fernando Alonso closed right up to the leading pair, the four cars running almost nose to tail over the closing laps.

On Sunday, Schumacher again seemed unduly conservative as teammate Rubens Barrichello shadowed him for lap after lap, looking clearly faster and causing the skeptics to wonder aloud whether team orders weren't being imposed again by Ferrari. The reason for Schumacher's cautious pace became clear once Barrichello had pitted and was released onto a clear track. The Brazilian, pushing hard to try and make the best of the clean air until Schumacher's second stop, was rewarded almost instantly with cooked brakes and an off-road excursion at turn 8 that ultimately ended his hopes of a race-long challenge to his team leader.

The wisdom of Schumacher's restrained pace became even more evident when brother and early leader Ralf made his third and final stop just one lap after Michael's final stop - and emerged half-a-dozen seconds behind the Ferrari. At one stage, it had looked like the race could develop into a close-run battle once it all unfolded during the final stops. As it turned out, Michael had been measuring his pace, with five seconds or so in his pocket, all along. As ever, the German did just enough to win, and not enough to compromise his machinery.

Equally predictably, luck played a role in Schumacher's triumph. Contrary to what the qualifying pace may have suggested, it was the two-stopping Renaults (not the three-stopping Williams and Button's BAR) that posed the greatest threat to Ferrari's prospects. Having the dependable Jarno Trulli's Renault limp into retirement with broken suspension before the first corner, and a malfunctioning refuelling hose dropping the sister car of Fernando Alonso out of contention before half-way, undoubtedly made life much easier for Schumacher.

However, Schumacher also makes his own luck, with the right amount of aggression at the right time. At Monaco, Schumacher's race effort was compromised by being stuck behind McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen during the opening laps of the race. At Canada, it almost happened again. As David Coulthard and the two Jaguars got tangled up at the first corner of the race, it went almost unnoticed in the background that Raikkonen had got ahead of Schumacher off the startline. The television coverage understandably stayed focused on the turn 2 incident, missing one of the race's key moves. For, by the time the television coverage picked up the leaders arriving at the first recognised overtaking spot, the heavy braking zone for the hairpin, Schumacher was already back in front of Raikkonen's McLaren.

It may not have mattered much if Schumacher had been unable to regain the position immediately, as Barrichello was able to pick off the struggling Raikkonen easily a few laps later. But Michael Schumacher wasn't to know that at the time. He needed that position badly, and he needed it immediately. So, much as he had done against Juan Pablo Montoya in the opening lap at Monza 2003, he refused to back down. Montoya and Raikkonen are both feisty characters who don't give up track position easily. Yet, despite his growing reputation as an ultra-cautious driver who prefers to pass only during pitstops, Schumacher has recently been able to out-muscle both when it really counted.

If Schumacher is a driver who has learnt to balance risk and reward almost perfectly, BAR's Takuma Sato is at the other end of the scale. Even the young Japanese star's most staunch defender, team boss David Richards, is starting to concede that Sato's development has not been ideal.

It is plausible that Honda are using Sato's engines to test out new components, or at least more finely engineered components. One of the major bitter issues in the McLaren feud of the late 1980s was Alain Prost's allegation that Honda provided Ayrton Senna with different (read 'superior') engine management chips.

If that is currently the case at BAR, it doesn't exonerate Sato's performance so far. The point of implementing new components is that they are presumably faster, which would detract from Sato's performance on the few occasions that he's had the better of Jenson Button. If the two drivers are getting exactly the same engines, then Sato is either too hard on the machinery or the natural heir to Johnny Herbert's bad luck charm.

One thing that neither Honda nor BAR can be accused of is providing Sato with a car that spins itself. And, at Canada, Sato was again guilty of pushing too hard at the wrong time. A spectacular 360-degree spin out of the final chicane on his qualifying lap, combined with another hopelessly optimistic outbraking move at the chicane during the race, must have left the BAR outfit in despair. They have ostensibly the second best car on the grid, but Jenson Button is having to take on the two Renaults on his own - and doing a superb job of it.

With interest in the championship battle fading with each race, the Sato issue is becoming one of the focal points of the season. Richards is fully justified in believing that Sato is a rare talent who needs more time and more work to mature fully. Sadly, motor racing history is full of rare talents who excelled in junior formulae, only to perform below expectations when reaching F1. Whether Sato will fail, or start to develop signs of a Button- or Raikkonen-like maturity as the season wears on, is one of the few intriguing issues left in a season where many of the championship questions have already been answered.

If Sato is to start delivering on his vast potential, time is not on his side. With Williams rebounding and McLaren looking forward to the racing debut of the new car, even Button may be hard-pressed to score more podium finishes for the Brackley-based team. Sato needs some high-scoring finishes desperately, for his own sake and the team's. Indianapolis on Sunday would be the ideal place to start.

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