Schumacher Praises Mechanics after Scare

World Champion Michael Schumacher praised his mechanics after his Austrian Grand Prix victory at the A1-Ring following the pitlane fire that had threatened to scupper his chances.

Schumacher's car caught fire during his first stop when his mechanics encountered problems with the re-fuelling hose, but quick work with fire extinguishers allowed the German to return to the track and ultimately win.

The five-time champion remained cool in the cockpit of his car, but he admitted his mechanics had performed superbly in putting out the fire quickly.

"I guess the mechanics thought I was a little bit too cool and they warmed me up," he joked. "I thought they did a great job under the circumstances to control everything. I had a little doubt for a moment whether we had a problem with the fire and how serious it was.

"But the car worked very well, we were able to do quick lap times to secure the margin we needed for the strategy."

Schumacher passed McLaren-Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen for second and then benefitted from the retirement of Williams-BMW driver Juan Pablo Montoya seconds later to take the lead and the race victory.

The Ferrari driver praised Montoya, who suffered an engine failure, for driving off line but he was also critical of him after the Colombian completed his lap with smoke billowing from his car before driving into the pitlane.

"That was a little tricky moment," he said of overtaking Raikkonen. "Not extremely tricky because there was a sort of gap and I was already by Kimi at this stage, but the point was I didn't know what Juan Pablo was going to do.

"Whether he stays off line or he suddenly pulls over and thinks he's still racing, it was a little bit concerning but in the end he stayed off line and did a proper job. He could have probably stopped a little bit earlier with an oily engine around for the rest of the lap but I guess he was lazy of walking back to the pits."