Flavio Briatore, one of Michael Schumacher’s harshest critics at Monaco, has now called for an end to condemnation of the punished former champion.
The Renault boss told La Gazzetta dello Sport: ”He made a mistake, he paid for it — enough.
”Renault and Ferrari will continue to battle until the last grand prix, and rightly so.”
Michael Schumacher’s younger brother, Ralf, also said of the Rascasse indiscretion: ”We are all human and these things happen.”
Similarly, Germany’s free-to-air ‘RTL’ broadcaster demonstrated no hard feelings after it revealed that a solid audience of 10.32 million viewers tuned in to watch the 37-year-old German fight from pitlane to fifth on Sunday.
That’s about 1.3 million more German bottoms on sofas than a year ago.
Not everyone, however, is quite ready to forgive and forget. Also in Gazzetta dello Sport, Renault racer Giancarlo Fisichella recalled his ‘anger’ at watching video replays of Schumacher’s dodgy moment.
He said: ”Even a toddler can see that this ridiculous manoeuvre was no (driving) error.”
One of the three stewards who sent Michael to the back of the grid, meanwhile, defended their decision.
Spaniard Joaquin Verdegay said: ”He performed some absolutely unnecessary and pathetic counter-steering (and) lost control of the car while travelling at 16kmh!
”That’s something completely unjustifiable, and the engine (also) shut off because he wanted it to.”gmmf1 dailyf1news.com,/b>
