Schumacher retired for safety reasons

The Toro Rosso hit the rear of the Mercedes into Turn 3, giving Schumacher a puncture which then damaged the rear of the car as it broke up on the German's return to the pits.

Schumacher returned to the race, but ran last and off the pace before finally giving up after 19 laps.

"I had quite a good start and made up quite a few positions, I was already passed Kobayashi, and then at Turn 1 it got a bit tight and I had to slow down," Schumacher explained to the BBC.

"That was okay, I got going again and got running down to T3, but turning in somebody knocked on my right rear, I don't know the circumstances.

"But the consequence was that I had a puncture, and that meant that it destroyed the rear tyre and that destroyed the rear of the floor. When the tyre is punctured it will fall into pieces and that broke off bits and pieces around the tyre and that was quite substantial.

"On top of that I'm pretty sure we had a bent suspension because I had a funny behaviour between left and right corners, so that was a bit entertaining for the 20 laps that I did," he added.

"But it wasn't worth it and I think the team quite rightly decided for safety reasons to come in and not risk anything."