Schumachers show a united front

MOTOR SPORT/European Grand Prix: Michael Schumacher has leapt to the defence of younger brother Ralf following accusations the Williams driver failed to attempt an overtaking move on the world champion at the Canadian Grand Prix a fortnight ago.

The Ferrari driver led the Williams man for the final third of the race in Montreal and despite being markedly quicker than the Ferrari the younger Schumacher failed to make a significant move on his brother before he took the chequered flag.

Critics were quick to pounce on the Williams driver, citing, among other examples, a hyper-aggressive race in 1999 by Eddie Irvine for Ferrari in which the Irishman scrapped from the back of the grid to fourth over the course of the event as ample evidence of Montreal's overtaking possibilities. Those critics included Williams' technical director Patrick Head who said he believed if Williams' second driver, Juan Pablo Montoya, had been behind the Ferrari, he would have at least have challenged for the lead.

Arriving at the Nurburgring ahead of Sunday's European Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher rejected the claims: "It's very simple. A lot of people talk a lot without knowing what's going on. It's not worth talking about. Personally, I'm not very happy about it. All you have to consider is that it wasn't just Ralf behind me, but behind him was Montoya and behind him was Alonso and none of those could get past either. It's the usual story of people creating a nice story for themselves."

The champion's younger brother also denied the claims: "This kind of talking has been happening for the past year and a half to two years. People make comments when they shouldn't. Basically, whenever there has been an opportunity in the past, and it will be the same in the future, I will take it. In Canada, the opportunity simply wasn't there."

After defending his younger sibling's aggression the elder Schumacher moved on to Ferrari's increasing potency this season. In Canada, Schumacher took control of the drivers' world championship for the first time this season, and starts this weekend's European GP with a three-point cushion over McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, who led the title chase until a fortnight ago.

However, Schumacher denied his recent run of results - four wins and a third place in the five races since the introduction of the new F-2003G-A car - constituted a renewed spell of Ferrari dominance.

"Honestly, I can't see us getting up such a margin of superiority as we had last year," he said. "In all areas the other teams have upped their game and, to be honest, in terms of development for us and others, I don't think there's much room to move."

The admission won't ease any of the fevered brows at McLaren, however. Hoping to have their new MP4-18 car ready for this race, the Woking-based team were forced to admit yesterday the car had, amongst other problems, failed its mandatory FIA crash test and that the car may not be used until the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on September 14th because of Formula One's summer testing ban.

"We failed the crash test but we have learned from the result and are confident the chassis will pass the next one," said a McLaren spokesperson.

The failure is a major blow to McLaren's championship hopes, not just in the drivers' title race but also in the constructors' battle - arguably more important for the Mercedes-powered team.

In Canada, the team also relinquished their hold on that championship and now lag nine points behind a resurgent Ferrari.

The MP4-18, supposedly a radical departure from previous machines built by the team, has had a troubled gestation. A possible Imola debut was put back to a Nurburgring debut and then there were two crashes in testing, one involving Raikkonen in Barcelona and the other just last week in Jerez, test driver Alex Wurz narrowly avoided injury in a massive smash.

And now with the test ban due to come into effect after the French Grand Prix, the team would not be able to test the car again until the Hungarian Grand Prix, on the weekend of August 24th.