Michael Schumacher stood on a sombre podium this afternoon as he dedicated his and team mate's Barrichello's one-two finish in the European Grand Prix to the memory of the late FIAT President, Umberto Agnelli who passed away on Thursday.  Â

In racing terms, he answered his critics this afternoon in dominant fashion by winning his home race at the Nurburgring in fine style. Whilst Michael led from pole, he was followed home by Rubens Barrichello who drove superbly to move from seventh on the grid to finish second. Â Â

Both Ferrari cars performed well from start to finish and were on the pace from the moment the lights went out. In fact, the reliability of the cars was one of their major strengths once again. Speaking after qualifying yesterday, Ferrari Managing Director, Jean Todt said, 'there are so many parameters to take into consideration: the start, the strategy, tyre wear ... but also reliability, without which you are nowhere and that applies also to Shell, who I thank for their work on the crucial area of our lubricants.' Â Â

'This is our fourth one-two finish of the year and we can never tire of these results,' said Mike Copson of Shell Global Solutions. 'With such a hectic race schedule at the moment, it has been all hands on deck for the past two weeks, but the 18 points here today are reward in themselves. Technically, we saw Shell V-Power ULG58 (the Formula One Shell racing fuel) used exactly as intended. Schumacher ran light in the first stint and then stayed out for longer than most whilst Barrichello ran longer from the outset using the same fuel. It is this flexibility Ferrari has asked us to deliver and I am happy to see it work with such good results.' Â Â

The start of the race was a fraught affair. Michael Schumacher led the grid away from pole with a perfect start, but behind him, the other 19 cars all fought hard. Breaking for Turn One, Montoya locked his wheels, narrowly avoiding the back of Barrichello in front of him, but the resultant understeer was enough to cause a collision with team mate Ralf Schumacher. Montoya damaged his nose in the incident and had to pit, but the impact was enough to spin Ralf into retirement. Worse still, the spinning Williams collected Da Matta's Toyota en route making them the first two retirements of the day. Â

 Speculation had reigned all morning about exactly how much Shell fuel Schumacher had on board, the common consensus being that he was light given his incredibly quick lap time yesterday. The paddock pundits soon had their answer as Schumacher reeled off a series of stunningly fast laps to lead Raikkonen by nearly nine seconds by lap. Following a set of five fastest laps, Schumacher was the first man to pit on lap 8. He exited the pit lane in seventh position and waited for those ahead of him to stop.  Â

He did not have to wait long as by lap 12 all ahead of him, but Barrichello, had stopped. The other Ferrari, now in the lead, was on a different strategy to his team mate. On a 'two-stopper', Barrichello waited until lap 15 before coming in. Â Â

By lap 16, Raikkonen's McLaren had expired, retiring him from the race. As the various strategies unfolded, Michael Schumacher was leading the race ahead of Takuma Sato, Barrichello, Coulthard, Button and Webber. Â Â

As the race established a rhythm, the teams took stock and waited for the next round of pit stops. Once again for Ferrari, the flexibility of the light-weight Shell fuel was beginning to be felt. Having pitted early, Schumacher stayed out on track longer than most this time, not taking his second stop until lap 28. Â Â

Ten laps later and Rubens pitted for a final time, coming out ahead of Sato with whom he had been fighting for the previous few rounds. Sato tried a pass on Barrichello, the following lap into Turn One, but touched the Ferrari, losing his nose in the process and forcing a fourth stop for the B.A.R. To make matters worse for the young Japanese, his engine gave up on him the following lap, bringing his promising race to an unwanted end. Â Â

At the head of the field, Schumacher pitted for a final time as he and Barrichello eased off the pace, dropping their times into the 1.32's and led the field home for another dominant one-two finish, their fourth of the season. Â Â

With the Ferraris on the top two steps of the podium, Jenson Button finished third once again with Trulli and Alonso in fourth and fifth. Fisichella raced very well to climb from the last row to sixth with Webber and Montoya taking the last two points. Â Â

Ferrari's lead of the Constructors' Championship is now 45 points over Renault, whilst Michael leads Rubens in the Drivers' table by 14 points. Â Â

After two weeks of sheer hard work from the Formula One teams, some may afford themselves an evening off tonight or perhaps even the day tomorrow, but either way, rest will be brief as the cars and equipment will be shipped off to Canada in a few days to do it all again in Montreal and Indianapolis. Â