Schumacher unprofessional, says Gascoyne

Gascoyne was highly impressed with the standard of driving throughout a race where overtaking was a striking feature, but was disgusted by Schumacher's move.

"I thought there was some great racing and some very professional driving," he said. "The only unprofessional bit was Michael putting Fernando on the grass on the first lap, which I thought was disgraceful. Fernando was alongside him but Michael just kept going, didn't give him any room and put him on the grass at 185mph, which is probably a little dangerous...

"If the guy is alongside, you've got to give him a car's width, and Michael didn't. But Fernando's not too unhappy about it, he can look after himself and he's confident about the future..."

Gascoyne part-attributed the race excitement to the two tyres working in different ways. "Bridgestone and Michelin were probably pretty equal in terms of pace here but the tyres worked in slightly different ways, so that people were quick at certain stages," he said.

"For instance on the first restart Barrichello looked very slow but then given two or three laps he was suddenly very quick again and able to get past Kimi Raikkonen. It was certainly a great race to watch, all apart from that first bit..."