Schuey: Rubens deserved it

"We were free to race initially but we knew from the first stint, where we were very equal, that it was impossible to pass," Schumacher said. "My best chance to win the race was when I was very close behind Rubens just before the first pitstop. I knew that I was going to stay out a lap longer and thought that I might be able to take advantage of that. I needed to be really close and I got a little too close and spun off.

"Rubens deserves it. He drove a great race with no mistakes, which I didn't."

After losing 11 seconds to Barrichello with his spin, Schumacher had almost caught his team-mate before the second stop. This time he was the first to pit and came out just behind a battle between the Saubers and Jarno Trulli.

"That cost me time but I can't honestly say whether it made the difference," Schumacher said. "I was still a couple of seconds behind after Rubens came back out. The team then told us to drive to the finish without taking any risks and in any case my oil temperature was going up a bit when I was behind Rubens. He backed off and it would have been unfair of me to take advantage of it, so that's just the way it was."

Asked why Ferrari did not impose team orders today but did so in Austria, the world champion said: "At that stage we did not know how the season was going to develop, but at this point our position is that much more comfortable and we had obviously seen what had happened to Montoya and Ralf."

Ferrari denied that it was an attempt to appease the FIA for the Austrian debacle ahead of next week's Paris hearing.