Grapevine: Schumacher Benefits from Helping Hands

Four unsung heroes helped Michael Schumacher extend his World Championship lead today, sprinting across a gravel trap to give the stranded German a push.

The marshals ran some 150 metres as fast as they could to rescue the Ferrari driver after he collided with Juan Pablo Montoya and skidded off at the European Formula One Grand Prix.

"We practice it all the time and we're always glad to help," said Michael Paosoto, a truck driver and volunteer marshal. "It took us a while to reach him because the gravel was very deep and slowed us down."

Schumacher kept the motor running but his back wheels were lodged in the gravel.

"We saw the motor was still running and knew right away that he only needed a push," said Joerg Karl, 33, like all his German teammates from nearby towns. "We saw him giving us signals but we already knew what to do."

Schumacher was allowed to continue because it was a dangerous corner - and pushing the car back on the track was faster than lifting it away. The old-fashioned hand push was all the high-tech help Ferrari needed. Schumacher fell from second to sixth and ended up fifth - but he took four important points for a new career total of 1,003.

The marshals were rewarded by Schumacher on the five-times World Champion's next lap.

"He gave us a big thumbs up sign the next time he drove by," said marshal Frank Entemann, 31, from Duesseldorf. Schumacher later gave the four autographs and photographs.

"Sure we're all fans of his but we would have done the exact same thing for every driver and would have been just as fast," said Entemann, adding that they pushed BAR driver Jacques Villeneueve out of the same patch in practice on Friday.

"If it had been Kimi Raikkonen stuck in the gravel we would have been just as fast," said 22-year-old Marko Kovalak.

Schumacher praised the four after the race.

"They did a good job," he said.

Later he joked about their speed, laughing that even though the four marshals were fast they could have run even quicker through the gravel with more training.

"If he thinks we could be faster maybe he should invite us to join him for some training at his fitness centre," said Entemann.