There is no talk of retirement now. An hour?s drive from the town of his birth, in front of 121,000 genuflecting Germans, Michael Schumacher blazed into World Championship contention and into the hearts of neutrals. To think that we had entertained the idea that Schumacher might be heading for the pipe and slippers on the shores of Lake Geneva.

This was Schumacher at his best, delivering a strategy devised brilliantly on the pit wall to give Fernando Alonso and Renault the hurry-up ahead of Sunday?s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. The stroll towards a second world title suggested by Alonso?s victories in Bahrain and Australia is now only a blown engine away from a dogfight.

Schumacher?s first win of the season at Imola a fortnight ago acquired substance with his second at the European Grand Prix. Alonso, 13 points to the good in the championship race, holds the upper hand, but one mistake, one missed beat under the Renault bonnet, is all it will take for that gap to be narrowed.

As Imola hinted and Germany proved, there is little to separate the men or their machines.

Ferrari obliged as only they can, via the guru watching it unfold on the pit wall. Ross Brawn, the unseen hand who has guided Schumacher to seven world championships at Benetton and Ferrari, proved the master mathematician again.

Circuit design prevented overtaking at Imola. At the Nurburgring, parity made passing impossible. If Schumacher were to prevail, it would have to be through the pit stops. Enter Brawn.

?Going one more lap at the first stop was crucial,? Brawn said. ?We had to sweat it out until the second stop, but just the fact that they [Renault] stopped first allowed us to put a couple of extra laps? worth of fuel in. It was important that we went two or three laps longer because the tyres were quicker at the end of the stint.?

Schumacher holds the key to the season. The championship is alive again, as is his future at Ferrari. Schumacher gave himself until the summer to decide on retirement. We can discount that nonsense now. The moment he gives Ferrari the nod to announce the good news is the signal for the others to begin making their own arrangements.