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Barrichello attacks Schuey

ByReuters

Updated 24/11/2010 at 14:31 GMT

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello criticised former Ferrari team mate Michael Schumacher on Sunday for what he said was the most dangerous manoeuvre ever used against him.

Rubens Barrichello

Image credit: Eurosport

"I like a fair fight. But that wasn't fair here," the Williams driver told Sky Deutschland TV at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
"If Michael wants to go to heaven - in the event that he is going to heaven - then I don't really care. But I don't want to go before him."
Barrichello went past for 10th place and the final point late in the race while Schumacher, making a Formula One comeback at the age of 41 and after three years in retirement, was 11th for Mercedes.
The stewards ruled that the seven-times world champion, in forcing Barrichello perilously close to the wall and off track while trying to prevent the Williams going past, had "illegitimately impeded" the Brazilian.
Schumacher was handed a 10-place penalty for his next race, his favourite Belgian Grand Prix later this month.
"He kept on coming even though I was already alongside," Barrichello said in the Williams motorhome. "I was lucky that the wall finished.
"I was millimetres from the wall," added Barrichello, who spent six years at Ferrari with Schumacher where the German regularly benefited from preferential treatment.
Barrichello described Schumacher's action as "probably one of the worst" he had experienced and said action was necessary because he was such a role model for youngsters.
"Obviously today I wouldn't back off for anything," he said.
"If we had touched there, I think he would flick it over and go inside the wall like head-on. So it was more of a danger for him, because he kept on coming. I couldn't move any further to the right because the wall was there.
"If you take a photo of the wall and us, there is not a hair in there. It's unbelievable...I am very glad and very lucky that we are here to talk."
Barrichello said he had not spoken to Schumacher because to do so would be pointless.
"You know Michael, you talk to him and he's always going to feel he's right...he's been stopped for three years and we can see he didn't change. He's still the same guy.
"He's carrying something from the past that is not necessary today," he added.
Schumacher, whose comeback has disappointed those who expected him to get back among the winners, was dismissive of Barrichello's complaint.
"We know certain drivers have certain views, and then there's Rubens...," he told the BBC.
"As far as I was concerned there was enough room for him to get through there. But it's clear that I wanted to make life for him as difficult as possible," he said.
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