Schumacher accepts Petrov crash

Michael Schumacher was sympathetic towards Vitaly Petrov for the crash which took them both out of the Korean Grand Prix.

Schumacher was in the top ten and eyeing a solid points finish when Petrov outbraked himself in to turn three defending from Fernando Alonso and crashed in to the rear of the Mercedes. Although both drivers tried to continue, Schumacher stopped on track and Petrov retired in the pits. Schumacher, however, accepted the incident, saying that the pair had raced closely in the past and that clashes were likely to happen as a result.

"Well I was suddenly 180 degrees in the wrong direction and saw my wing hanging down and a Renault wing flying past," Schumacher told the BBC. "But that's racing, it does happen occasionally. I haven't seen the total circumstance of it as I was focusing forward to Perez and not really paying much attention to what happens to the back, but there you go.

"I have to say we have had some great racing together this year. We are more often together naturally due to our positions and car pace, so to have a couple of get togethers, the first two were on my cap and this is maybe on his cap. But as I say that's racing, it does happen."

Petrov himself apologised to Schumacher, and admitted that trying to outbrake Alonso proved to be his undoing as he couldn't slow the car down on the dirty side of the track.

"To be honest I tried to defend the position from Fernando, I was on the dirty side for braking and I just locked and hit Michael," Petrov said. "I apologise to Michael, it was not his fault, it was absolutely my fault but it's racing. I tried to focus on Alonso because if I can defend my position, I can gain one position if Fernando maybe has a bad pit stop or whatever. So then I tried to brake almost the same, and I was on the dirty side; even he was on the clean side and he missed the corner."

ESPNF1