Stewart: Schumacher "invited disaster"

They were all lining up to criticise Michael Schumacher after his blocking manoeuvre against Rubens Barrichello in Hungary. The record championship winner had almost forced Barrichello into the pit wall as the Brazilian was shaping up to pass him. Three-time world champion Jackie Stewart demanded that nothing of this kind should ever be allowed to happen again and issued a stern judgement on Schumacher.

"It's now 16 years and four months since we lost a driver," said the Scottish legend in an interview with the Daily Express. He was referring to the black weekend in 1994 when Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger were killed at Imola.

"We are never more than a millimetre away from something awful happening, and for Schumacher to do what he did with Rubens Barrichello is just inviting disaster," continued Stewart. "For one driver to do that deliberately, knowing that the wheels could interlock and that he had nowhere to go, was shocking. It was one of the most blatant abuses of another driver that I have seen. It is a terrible example from a man who has seven world titles - bully-boy tactics."