Michael and Monty reflect

Schumacher's Ferrari suffered a tyre failiure on the main straight and hit concrete barriers on both sides of the track before coming to rest some 200m further down the circuit.

"I felt a bit stiff the next day but no it was no drama," the seven-times champion said. "We have invested a lot of time in the cockpit area in terms of safety and it paid out. You do everything to make your survival cell as safe and comfortable as possible. We have analysed the accident in terms of the impact and it although it was heavy, the consequence next day was rather small and I felt pretty good. It happened on Thursday, I slept a bit longer on Friday morning and my only concern was that I couldn't play a soccer match on Saturday, but that happened without a problem."

Montoya, meanwhile, said: "Until the last day, the test was good. It was my last lap of testing with Williams and I nearly ended up in the tyres! I was coming through the left and the left rear suspension failed. I went, see you later...

"It was a big moment to be honest. I thought we were going to have a massive shunt. For some reason I thought, don't brake, I just kept my foot wide open, spun, didn't slide back and came out of the front. Then it was, I need the toilet..."

Montoya, however, is not concerned about the safety implications of racing at Monza.

"It is not the place to have a failure," he admitted, "but if you don't have a failure and have a crash in a corner, the only place you can have a big shunt is coming out of Ascari."