Imola: World champion Michael Schumacher equalled his best start to a Formula One season here Sunday with his fourth consecutive victory of the year and a record sixth win in the San Marino Grand Prix.

German Schumacher started second behind Jenson Button after missing pole for the first time this season, but he took the lead in the first pit stops and never looked back to continue his perfect record with another dominant drive.

Briton Button, who had scored his first Formula One podium just two races before in Malaysia, achieved his best ever result with second after a lonely race while Juan Pablo Montoya claimed third for Williams.

But on a day when the sport remembered Brazilian great Ayrton Senna, ten years after his death here in 1994, it was his successor, Schumacher, who displayed his supreme talent to take his points tally to 40 with a sublime victory.

Renault duo Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli claimed fourth and fifth after holding off a late push from Schumacher’s sixth-placed team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

German Ralf Schumacher, in the second Williams, finished seventh and Kimi Raikkonen, of McLaren, was promoted to the final points-scoring place when the engine in Takuma Sato’s BAR-Honda blew up just six laps from the end.

Button made a perfect start while Schumacher dropped into the clutches of Montoya, who attempted to get around the Ferrari at the Tosa corner but was forced wide onto the grass.

Italian Giorgio Pantano became the first retirement of the race when the debutant parked his Jordan on the seventh lap. Montoya started the first round of pit stops at the end of lap eight.