Schumacher unscathed after high-speed crash

Triple world champion Michael Schumacher wrecked his Ferrari but emerged unscathed from a dramatic high-speed crash in Formula One testing at Monza yesterday.

"He says he's fine and he's looking very calm," his spokeswoman Sabine Kehm told Reuters. "It was quite a big accident." Schumacher lost control of the rear of his Ferrari F2001 under heavy braking shortly after noon on the first day of testing at the track and slammed into the guard rail at the second chicane, the Variante della Roggia.

The impact, at a point on the high-speed circuit where cars can approach 310 kph, ripped off both front wheels and sent the red Ferrari skidding the length of the Armco before plunging into the tyre wall.

"I saw the car against the barriers and I feared Michael could have really hurt himself," Benetton driver Giancarlo Fisichella said afterwards.

"Fortunately it did not turn out that way," added Fisichella, who went past Schumacher shortly after the crash.

"The car was wedged under the tyre barriers. I feared the worst. When I got to the pits the mechanics still did not know anything. Luckily he was alright."

Michael's younger brother Ralf was also testing on the circuit in his Williams and he stopped to run over and check the 32-year-old was unhurt.

Officials emphasised there was no danger in his action as the session had already been halted by then and Ralf, heading back to the pits at reduced speed, was the only driver remaining on the track.

Schumacher, who leads McLaren's David Coulthard in the championship by 37 points after finishing runner-up in Sunday's British Grand Prix, was taken to the medical centre and later discharged.

"Michael Schumacher is in good shape and a check-up at the circuit medical centre revealed no specific problems," Ferrari's official website (www.ferrari.com) reported.

"The driver then joined his engineers to watch footage and study telemetry data to try and understand the cause of the accident."

The world champions, who lead McLaren by 52 points in the constructors' title race with six grands prix remaining, abandoned testing for the day, leaving Rubens Barrichello idle.

Schumacher needs just two more wins to secure his fourth title and could equal Frenchman Alain Prost's record of 51 wins in front of a huge crowd of home fans at next week's German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.