Schu goes for spin at Silverstone

Michael Schumacher suffered double humiliation in practice this morning ahead of the British Grand Prix.

The six-times world champion, who has so far proved virtually unbeatable this season, proved he is human after all, not once, but twice during each of the 45-minute sessions at Silverstone.

In what proved to be the only notable incident of the opening run, Schumacher put the right rear wheel of his Ferrari on the grass coming out of Priory which resulted in him spinning at Brooklands.

However, the 35-year-old German still managed to post the third-quickest time behind Kimi Raikkonen in his McLaren, and the man all Britain is pinning their hopes on tomorrow – Jenson Button – in his BAR.

Remarkably, Schumacher went on to repeat the ‘trick’ 20 minutes from the end of the second session as he was pushing hard to beat Raikkonen’s fastest time of the weekend, one minute 18.280 seconds.

Schumacher had posted the quickest time in the first sector, but again he was out of shape through Priory and this time careered backwards across the gravel before coming to rest, and with his engine stalled, on an access road.

Schumacher later returned to the track with just over four minutes remaining, but was forced to settle for eighth place with a time just under seven tenths of a second down on Raikkonen.

The Finn is clearly back on form in a revamped McLaren, taking top spot on the timesheets in the last three of the four practice sessions, saving his best for the final run with a time an astonishing three seconds quicker than last season’s pole position lap from Rubens Barrichello.

Button again wound up second, just 0.134secs off the pace to raise hopes among British fans of a home win in what has been a miserable summer of sport.

Barrichello was third, with the Renault of Jarno Trulli, Marc Gene in the BMW Williams and team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya completing the top six, with David Coulthard seventh in the second McLaren.

Minardi, meanwhile, chose not to run their cars in the first of the morning’s practice sessions out of respect for sporting director John Walton, who died late yesterday.

Walton, partner of ITV presenter Louise Goodman, suffered a heart attack in the early hours of Monday morning before passing away at the age of 46 with his family at his bedside at St Thomas’ Hospital, London.

The shock news was delivered to the rest of the team this morning as they arrived at Silverstone, and as a mark of respect drivers Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner did not take to the track following a decision taken by team principal Paul Stoddart.

However, they were then first out in the final practice run, with Baumgartner followed by Bruni, although the Hungarian and the Italian were predictably 18th and 20th, finishing 3.7 and 5.6secs down respectively.