Webber: only Schumacher knows

Webber, who was one of the drivers to lose a chance to improve his time because of the incident, held back from casting a damning judgement on Schumacher on Saturday afternoon. He had yet to watch a video replay.

"I understand the second sector was well down," said Webber. "You could say he was trying very, very hard in the last sector, but it looks like there's been two moves on the steering wheel from what I've heard. 

"Obviously if it is intentional it is childish, isn't it? It looks a bit tricky to be honest."

Webber has made no secret of his admiration for Schumacher, although he admitted the seven-time champion had let him down before.

"Personally I was a bit disappointed in Michael last year at Indianapolis, which is why I haven't done much with the Grand Prix Drivers' Association since then," he said. "I still hold him in very high regard, but who knows what happened?

"I just feel you don't have to do this stuff. Why does it always have to happen? It's like Mike Tyson biting someone's ear off, isn't it? 

"I crashed here at Rascasse in F3000 when I was on pole, but I was trying to improve. 

"I'm a huge sports fan and we've seen that sometimes people do things that they shouldn't. Senna did some pretty wild things because he believed that was right. But will Michael sleep well tonight. Who knows?

"If it's deliberate it's absolutely rubbish. It's massively below the belt and if that's the case he should definitely lose all his qualifying."

Webber played down speculation that Schumacher will be asked to resign as president of the GPDA, saying it was too early to make such a judgement.