BARCELONA, Spain -- Nigel Mansell of Britain fought his way through the rain in Spain Sunday to easily win the Spanish Grand Prix, his fourth straight victory on the Formula One circuit.
In a race where drivers skidded across the course and out of the race, Mansell led from start to finish and has now captured the season's first four races, matching last year's mark by Aryton Senna of Brazil.
Mansell has the maximum 40 points in the driver's standings, 22 ahead of Riccardo Patrese. But the two Canon Williams drivers failed to repeat the double achieved in the other races as Patrese skidded from the course while in second place on the 20th lap.
'Everybody drove fantastically just to stay on the track,' Mansell said. 'Every driver that finished here today deserves a medal.'
Schumacher signaled to the marshalls to halt the race after rain made the track treacherous.
'I was waving my hands at them and asking them to stop it,' he said. 'It didn't make any sense.'
Germany's Michael Schumacher finished a careeer-best second for the Camel Benetton team. Third place went to France's Jean Alesi in a Ferrarri.
Austria's Gerhard Berger finished fourth, followed by Italy's Michele Alboreto, Senna, Italy's Ivan Capelli and Pierluigi Martini, Japan's Aguri Suzuki and Austria's Karl Wendlinger.
Schumacher, in his second season of Formula One, is the only driver apart from Mansell to have scored points in all of this season's races. He is third in the standings with 17 points, one behind Patrese.
Mansell looked as if he might have to fight it out with Schumacher after the German closed a 20-second gap to five seconds in the final quarter of the race, but Mansell drew away in the final laps.
'I was really surprised when I saw the gap with Nigel was just five seconds,' Schumacher said. 'I thought he must have spun. But then he pulled away and there was no way I could keep up,' he said.
Senna, the defending champion, was third most of the race before sliding off the course with two laps to go.
'When I spun the first time I was lucky to get back on the circuit,' he said. 'But the car was aquaplaning everywhere and the second time I just couldn't hold it.'
Mansell, with three runner-up finishes in the driver's standings, refused to be overly optimistic about his chances of winning the title after 12 years of Grand Prix driving.
'So many things can happen,' he said. 'The championship is miles away and I am just not contemplating it. The competition is getting more and more. You can't relax.'
The Formula One season resumes in two weeks with the San Marino Grand Prix in Italy.
