U.S. Grand Prix: Schumacher's gesture gives Barrichello win

INDIANAPOLIS — With last-second antics at 200 mph, in a pair of Ferraris that cost $550 million to develop, Michael Schumacher literally gave away the United States Grand Prix to teammate Rubens Barrichello at the finish line yesterday.

Schumacher had dominated the race from the start, but eased up in the final moments and let Barrichello draw alongside down the homestretch.

Thoroughly unapologetic for the manipulation, Schumacher even said he'd been trying to orchestrate a tie, for show.

"I thought it was a good opportunity to go equal over the line," he said. "We tried, but we failed a little bit."

Barrichello won by .011 of a second, the second-closest finish in Formula One history.

For Schumacher, giving away a Grand Prix was about as sacrificial as John D. Rockefeller's old custom of giving away dimes. His fifth Formula One championship is already clinched, he has a record 10 wins this season, and his 63 career wins are 12 more than the previous record of the retired Alain Prost.

The win was Barrichello's fourth this season, giving Ferrari 14 victories in 16 races. With that sort of dominance, the drivers could afford to frolic on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's road course as if it were some Malibu Grand Prix rent-a-racer park.

"We're having a lot of fun together," Barrichello said. Schumacher, too, thought it had all been pretty cute.

But the international media present set off the latest firestorm of criticism of Ferrari for making a mockery of competition this Grand Prix season.

The tempests began at the May 12 Austrian Grand Prix, when Ferrari brass ordered Barrichello, who had dominated that race, to slow down and pull over on the final lap, allowing Schumacher to win.

That caused outrage in Europe, where legal bookmakers' associations declared the race "no bet."

But "team orders" have been common in Formula One since the end of World War II, and Ferrari maintained the manipulation was part of its strategy to help Schumacher, the team's No. 1 driver, secure the season title.

Even when Ferrari was fined $1 million by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, it wasn't for the orchestration but for bad manners on the podium: Schumacher had snubbed Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel during the trophy presentation.

Yesterday's shenanigans weren't ordered by Ferrari, both drivers said. Indeed, Schumacher said he'd been forbidden from handing the race to Barrichello, but decided to ad lib.