Brawn Defends Schumacher in Driving Row

Eddie Irvine returned to Formula One on Friday, two weeks after being rushed back to London from Austria with abdominal pains, in typically flamboyant fashion.

Sporting a new bleached-blond hairstyle, he proved his fitness by setting the 14th fastest time in his Jaguar in the morning's opening practice session and said he was raring to go in Sunday's race.

At the same time, the paddock continued to reverberate with heated debate over Michael Schumacher's driving.

Irvine, stung by comments from Schumacher, called on Thursday evening for the German former champion to resign from his position as the drivers' safety spokesman.

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn meanwhile defended Schumacher while slamming the behaviour of Canadian rival Jacques Villeneuve.

"Michael is not perfect, he makes mistakes and sometimes does things that are slightly strong," Friday's Daily Mail newspaper quoted Englishman Brawn as saying.

"But the other drivers are no angels themselves.

"Villeneuve's standards are, in my opinion, much worse and he has been guilty of disgusting tactics on occasions. Yet I have never heard Michael complain, not even in the privacy of our own motor home. He just gets on with his job.

Rubbish

"All these guys should keep their mouths shut and prove what they can do on the track instead of all this rubbish they come up with. Michael is an easy target. The guy at the top is always going to be criticised," said Brawn.

World championship leader Schumacher has been accused by BAR's Villeneuve, Irvine and McLaren's David Coulthard over the way he races and particularly for swerving across the track at the start.

Villeneuve, the 1997 world champion, recently accused the German of being unethical in his approach while Irvine said the double world champion had a bullying style.

Schumacher said he did not take the comments seriously -- which has further upset Irvine.