Jarno Trulli turned in a determined drive to seventh place and two championship points for Panasonic Toyota Racing in the Italian Grand Prix, round 15 of the 2006 Formula 1 World Championship.

Toyota's race strategy was dictated by the fact that they did not make it through to the qualifying shoot-out, meaning that the logical approach was to go to the grid with a heavy fuel load and adopt a one-stop strategy.

The method worked well for Trulli, who ran 29 laps into the 53-lap race before making his first pit stop. He then managed to hold off Nick Heidfeld's BMW Sauber and Felipe Massa's Ferrari in the closing stages.

"From the middle of the grid you can easily become involved in trouble at Monza's tight first chicane but I managed to avoid that and then everything went pretty well. I lost a little bit of time behind Barrichello but the strategy call was the right one and it worked out well and put me in the points."

For Ralf Schumacher the race was not so straightforward and he lost a bit of time in an incident with the Toro Rossos at the first chicane, then become trapped behind. He finished a lap down, in 15th place.

"I was also on a one-stop strategy and heavy with fuel," Schumacher said. "The car balance never felt quite right this weekend and I found that I was unable to make much impression in the race."

In a news-packed and controversial weekend for F1, Michael Schumacher took a big stride towards his eighth world title when he won his sixth race of the season and closed the championship gap on reigning champion Fernando Alonso to just two points with three races remaining. He also announced his retirement from race driving at the end of the season as Ferrari also revealed that Kimi Raikkonen will drive for the team to the end of 2009.

"Of course I want to mention Michael's decision," Ralf said. "I am sure he has thought long and hard about it and I respect it. I've enjoyed racing with him and I wish him all the best both for the championship and for the future."

Alonso, who had his three best qualifying laps cancelled when he was adjudged to have held up Felipe Massa, was on course for third place but suffered an engine failure in the closing stages. Kimi Raikkonen then finished second for Team McLaren Mercedes, with Pole Robert Kubica driving a strong race to claim a podium for BMW Sauber in just his third Grand Prix. Giancarlo Fisichella took fourth place for Renault, ahead of the Hondas of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. Behind Trulli's TF106B, Nick Heidfeld took the final point for BMW.

Senior General Manager, Chassis, Pascal Vasselon said: "Jarno had more of the pace we were expecting in qualifying but Ralf had a difficult race in traffic. It was good to come away with two points considering our grid positions. Monza is a one-off in terms of set- up and we are confident that we will be competitive in the final three races."