Schumacher still confident after 'misunderstanding' with de la Rosa

Ralf Schumacher claimed his clash with Pedro de la Rosa was a “racing incident” despite the accident happening in qualifying for the German Grand Prix today.

With drivers battling against the clock rather than their rivals, collisions in qualifying are extremely rare.

But Toyota ace Schumacher bucked that trend when he lunged down the inside of McLaren rival de la Rosa under braking for the hairpin.

The Spaniard did not see Schumacher coming and the cars touched, damaging the Toyota’s wing and inflicting a puncture on de la Rosa.

Schumacher blamed the clash on a misunderstanding but hopes he can still enjoy a fruitful home race after qualifying eighth.

He said: “The weekend was going well for me until final qualifying, when the unfortunate collision with de la Rosa caused me to lose a lot of time.

“It looked to me that he was opening the gap for me to overtake on the inside and then he just turned in the last moment, where I could not react anymore.

“These things can happen and are just normal racing incidents.

“I really thank the guys for working fast to get the car out again so that I moved up to eighth place. This position can also be promising for attaining points.”

De la Rosa, who qualified in ninth, absolved Schumacher of any blame, saying: “Obviously this was a misunderstanding of both parties.”