Under-fire Michael Schumacher has apologised to former Formula One teammate Rubens Barrichello for his blocking manoeuvre at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
In the final laps of Sunday’s race, seven-time world champion Schumacher fought to defend 10th position and almost pushed Williams driver Barrichello into a concrete wall when he swerved towards him.
The Mercedes driver, who will be penalised 10 grid places at the next grand prix in Belgium, accepted his defensive move was “too severe”, in a statement issued on his website on Monday.
Barrichello, who spent six years in Schumacher’s shadow at Ferrari, claimed he was lucky to be alive.
But Schumacher said: “Yesterday [Sunday], straight after the race, I was still in the heat of the moment, but after seeing the scene against Rubens again, I have got to say that the stewards are right with their judgement: the manoeuvre against him was too severe.
“I obviously wanted to make it difficult for him to overtake me and I also showed him clearly that I did not want to let him past, but obviously I did not want to endanger him with my manoeuvre. If he feels this way, then sorry, that was not my intention.”
Schumacher finished 11th in the race, the latest disappointing result in his comeback season. The former Ferrari driver is sitting in ninth position overall, 123 points behind leader Mark Webber of Red Bull.
Former Formula One driver Derek Warwick, a steward at the Hungarian Grand Prix, revealed that disqualification would have been an option if Schumacher had made the move earlier in the race.
He told BBC’s Five Live Breakfast: “By the time we got the video evidence we ran out of time and we had to do it retrospectively.
“We interviewed Rubens and Michael and it was kind of disappointing how Michael handled it, and we had no option but to give him a 10-place penalty. If we had enough laps [we could have disqualified him] but you have to have video evidence and make sure all four stewards are in agreement.” — AFP