Schumacher, Senna fall out over accident
Michael Schumacher and Bruno Senna were left bickering over who was to blame for the accident that both both men out of the Spanish Grand Prix in a turn 1 crash at the start of lap 14.
Senna was very slow down the start/finish straight on the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, and made some tentative moves to block Schumacher while taking the line into the corner. The much faster Michael Schumacher ended up ploughing into the back of the Williams at speed, damaging both cars heavily.
Schumacher's Mercedes was beached in the gravel, while Senna's Williams limped around a few more corners before finally having to be pulled over with extensive rear end and rear wing damage.
In the Mercedes team radio broadcast, Schumacher could clearly be yelling "Idiot!" and he confirmed to TV reporters afterwards that he was indeed referring in the strongest terms possible about Senna's conduct.
"It is not easy to see from the TV replays but what happened from my viewpoint was that he went to the right to defend the inside line, and then suddenly, shortly before the braking point, went to the left," he said. "When you are so tight together in the braking zone, you have no other choice than to try to react and avoid hitting but it was too late.
"I'm just behind him and I don't know how sharply he is going to move, so it was all very dangerous," he added. "I don't know what he was trying to prove but in Brazil last year he was driving into my car and today he was doing funny things."
Senna was unmoved by Schumacher's vehemence.
"Of course he's not going to say it's his own fault," said the Brazilian driver. "He had much newer tyres than me, I was on very old rubber by then, so I guess our braking points were uneven for turn 1.
"When I went to brake, he probably just tried to cross and he hit me. What can you do?"
Race stewards said that they would investigate and review the accident after the race, given that neither driver was no longer still running. However, that review will be delayed given subsequent incidents in pit lane, with the area closed after a fire broke out in the Williams pit area.
