Michael Schumacher insists his crushing defeat by Fernando Alonso in the Spanish Grand Prix is only a minor blip in his world championship challenge.

The Ferrari driver could barely raise a smile after finishing second behind his Enstone-based Renault F1 team rival in front of a frenzied sell-out crowd in Barcelona.

His pre-race optimism, fuelled by the knowledge he had a superior strategy, evaporated quickly in the Spanish sun as Alonso streaked away at the start and kept up a relentless pace to win with ease.

Despite seeing his two-race winning run end, Schumacher remains bullish on his championship chances.

"You have to understand what is possible and what is not possible," said the German, who is 15 points adrift of Alonso in the standings. "You can only try so much, you have to rely on your package and it wasn't working out.

"It is a long way to go until the end of the season. I am reasonably happy to lose only two points.

"You have to understand you cannot win every race, there are times when they are better than us. It is a long year to go and we will keep fighting to try to win."

Alonso had no time to think of his title chances and preferred to celebrate a historic and emotional win.

The 24-year-old became the first home winner of the Spanish Grand Prix in the 50th running of the race and claimed the victory was more satisfying than taking the world title last year.

He said: "So far this is the best thing that has happened to me in Formula One. I won the championship but this is a better feeling.

"I finished in front of my people, my supporters and it was the best feeling in a Formula One car. To race here in front of all-blue grandstands is a different feeling compared to all the other races.

"When you are leading you want to finish the race and celebrate the victory. It will be difficult for me to forget this day."

The only tinge of disappointment for Renault was Giancarlo Fisichella's failure to beat Schumacher to second, settling instead for third after running across the gravel.

Felipe Massa finished in the top four for the third consecutive race to add more points to Ferrari's tally, although they now trail Renault by 19 in the constructors' standings.

Kimi Raikkonen was the only McLaren driver to finish, in fifth, after Juan Pablo Montoya spun out.

Raikkonen held Jenson Button at bay to leave the Honda driver down in sixth, his best result in four races, while team-mate Rubens Barrichello was one place further back.

Nick Heidfeld rounded out the points for BMW-Sauber but David Coulthard could not mark his 200th grand prix with a result to celebrate and brought his Red Bull home 15th.