Schumacher quicker but Red Bull still fastest

Michael Schumacher was smiling again after Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix but it was nothing compared to the grins at Red Bull after another dominant display.

Jubilant Australian Mark Webber beat Ferrari's Fernando Alonso by 24 seconds at the Circuit de Catalunya and finished more than a minute ahead of Schumacher's fourth-placed Mercedes. Red Bull also notched up five poles in five races.

The timesheets made sobering reading for rivals who had hoped to close the speed gap on their return to Europe but, unlike the volcanic ash cloud still hanging over the continent, ended up blown further away than ever.

It was left up to 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton to be the 'best of the rest' splitting the two Red Bulls and running comfortably in second place before being sidelined by a puncture on the penultimate lap.

Schumacher turned his back on a dismal performance in China and enjoyed his best race since he decided to return to Formula One this season after three years out.

"The sparkle is back," declared Mercedes team chief executive Nick Fry. "Right from the beginning on Friday he was on it. Listening on the radio to Michael, there's the confidence back in his voice and he knows exactly what he wanted from the car and I think he got all that was to be had."

Schumacher was under scrutiny after finishing 10th in Shanghai, scoring just two points in his previous three races and being beaten 4-0 by young team mate Nico Rosberg in the four opening races. He had spent time after China talking through the problems with the team, going cycling with his race engineers and returning to the racetrack refreshed and encouraged, but a return to the chassis he had used in pre-season testing, a longer wheelbase and aerodynamic improvements, made a real difference.

"We could see there were areas where Michael's car was simply not performing," team principal Ross Brawn said of China. "There was fairly considerable chassis damage on the underside where Michael had hit some kerbs. We thought we'd repaired it properly between Malaysia and Shanghai and perhaps we hadn't. Now I see a more normal situation between the two drivers. I think he and Nico will be trading places all year. What we have to do is make sure they are trading places nearer the front of the grid than they are at the moment."

Brawn said it had always been unrealistic, with testing banned and different tyres, to expect Schumacher to be on the pace as soon as he stepped into the car.

"He made good progress in the first three races and Shanghai was a glitch," declared the man whose Brawn team won both titles last year before it was taken over by Mercedes. "You see that during a season with every team and every driver. It's just it came at a point where people seemed to focus in on it."

Rosberg, on the podium in China and Malaysia, was for once unable to set up the car to his liking. He struggled with understeer, tried to push through it and ended up simply damaging the tyres. Brawn and Fry both said there was still plenty more performance to unlock. Monaco, with its tight corners and twisty streets, will inevitably see more changes this weekend.

Schumacher has won five times in the past at Monaco but whether he can close the gap to the Red Bulls at a circuit that favours mechanical grip over outright speed remains to be seen. Schumacher will be remembered for 'parking' his Ferrari on the racing line during qualifying in his last appearance there in 2006 in order to prevent Fernando Alonso from taking pole position there.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have won the last two races in the principality and will be fancying their chances.

"When you finish a minute behind it's incredibly disappointing," said Fry. "Frankly we wouldn't expect the Red Bull to have such an advantage on other circuits, I think this one particularly suited it. but even if it hasn't got that level of advantage, it's certainly got half a second on us and that's a lot to make up."

The puzzle for rivals is figuring out where the Red Bull is getting its advantage. On some corners in Barcelona, the difference between them and the rest was 20 km/h.

"You do the maths on the amount of energy you need in terms of downforce to do that and it's not one device that accounts for it," said Fry.