Schumacher suffers practice setback

Michael Schumacher’s bid for a victory that could clinch a record sixth drivers’ crown ground to a halt at the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis today.

The German’s Ferrari rolled to a stop on his opening lap in the penultimate practice session after it developed a mechanical problem.

Schumacher stopped on the edge of the track in a forlorn hope that the session would be red flagged enabling the car to be taken back to the pits giving the mechanics longer to discover what was wrong.

Instead, marshals pushed the Ferrari to safety and Schumacher spent the 45-minute session lolling behind the barrier watching his rivals working to improve the set-up of their cars.

Schumacher, back in eighth place in first qualifying yesterday, leads Juan Pablo Montoya by three points while McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen is just four points further adrift with two races left.

Montoya could not supress a few giggles as he watched Schumacher’s predicament on the television screens in the the Williams garage before getting into his BMW power car.

The Colombian took advantage by quickly going top of the time-sheets although he was overhauled late in the session by Renault’s Jarno Trulli.

The Italian, who has finished on top in every session so far this weekend, eventually finished just 0.060 secs ahead of Germany’s Ralf Schumacher who produced a late flying lap in the other Williams.

Montoya was just fractions behind with Rubens Barrichello maintaining Ferrari’s presence near the top.

Schumacher helped marshals push the car to a tow-truck at the end of the session before getting back into the cockpit as it was slowly pulled back to the garage.

But he did not wind up bottom of the time-sheets with the McLaren’s of Raikkonen and David Coulthard staying in the garage after one installation lap.

Rookie Justin Wilson had a more encouraging session with the 10th best time for Jaguar while Jenson Button was 15th for BAR with Ralph Firman 18th in the Jordan.