Grapevine: Schumacher's 'pizza' offering

The seven-time world champion had hoped to be able to follow Germany all the way to this Sunday's final, having got tickets long ago, but his dreams were shattered by two late goals from Italy in extra time in their semi-final clash.

That result left many of Schumacher's mechanics keen to wind him up during this week's test at Jerez - and at one point his pit board was put out showing off the simple message: 2-0.

Keen to show that he was not taking the banter to heart, Schumacher responded to the German fans and media's criticism of Italy - which has included an attempt at launching a pizza boycott - by digging into his own pockets.

He made sure to arrange a delivery of pizza for the entire Ferrari team - a move that went down well with everyone.

"It was a nice gesture by Schumacher, he took [Germany's loss] sportingly," Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer told Gazzetta dello Sport. "In any case, to raise his spirits, I told him I prefer to see a German world champion in F1 in an Italian car rather than Germany in football."

Schumacher himself has said that he intends to go and visit the German team after their defeat - having seen first hand the Germany-Italy game.

"If you see the situation in the last two minutes, I would rather have seen the match in the paddock," said Schumacher, speaking at Jerez today.

"But at the end of the day Italy had better opportunities and chances. Italy won, but Germany fought well and they had a good match."