In Formula One racing action, Ralf Schumacher captured the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, and Juan Pablo Montoya finished second. The victory was Schumacher's first of the season and fifth of his F1 career. Ralf's last win was the Malaysian Grand Prix in March 2002. He was one of only two non-Ferrari winners last year out of 17 races. In the last three races Juan Pablo and Ralf have each won once and taken two seconds. The last time both drivers of the BMW-Williams F1 Team joined the podium ceremony together in the same positions but in opposite order, was at the German Grand Prix in 2002.

In spite of Ralf's victory, the story of the day was a passing incident that occurred between Juan Pablo and Ralf's brother Michael, the 5-time world champion. Montoya and Michael Schumacher collided on lap 43 at the bottom hairpin while fighting over second place. Montoya continued on, but Schumacher got caught on the curbs. The German kept his engine running even while stuck and with the legal assistance of three track workers, got back into the fray in sixth place. Over the remaining 17 laps, however, the No.1 Ferrari could only pass one car.

"He had a pretty good straight, but he was very slow in the corner. I gave Michael plenty of room but I wasn't going to give him all the track," said Montoya. "We touched, he spun, I continued and that's it. It was a racing incident - even if I must say that overtaking Michael at his home grand prix was much fun."

After the race, Michael Schumacher was not upset at Juan Pablo: "The collision with Juan Pablo was a straightforward racing incident," said Michael. "He was faster than me, tried to pass and gave me just enough room to survive. Maybe I could have wished for a little bit more space, but I have no problem with Juan Pablo over this. No-one was to blame. And considering that my lead in the world championship has now increased to seven points I cannot really complain about the result of the race especially as with the new points system it takes longer to catch-up."

The win pushed Ralf to within 8 points of second place in the race for the world driving championship.

Juan Pablo summed up the team's recent performance nicely when he said, "Today we proved again that our cars have improved and that we are definitely on our way up."