Hospital: Ralf Discharged Against Doctor's Advice

Williams driver Ralf Schumacher left hospital in Milan, Italy, this morning against the advice of his doctors, hospital officials said.

Schumacher was involved in a heavy accident yesterday in Monza, where his car lost both rear and front wings at the second Lesmo corner. He was taken to hospital for precautionary checks and remained there overnight for observation.

His spokesman said earlier today that Ralf was now going back to his home in Austria, where he will rest until the beginning of next week.

However, a spokesman for the San Raffaele hospital in Milan told reporters that the Williams driver had discharged himself from the hospital against his doctors' advice. "We would have liked to keep him for 24-48 hours of observation," the spokesman said.

The hospital spokesman stated Ralf Schumacher should be resting for at least seven days and suggested the German should not make a hasty return to racing.

"We hope that the driver, his family and his team will carefully think about an eventual, undesirable return to racing in the short term," the spokesman said.