Schumacher and Montoya give ground

Neither is prepared to admit they were the guilty party in last weekend's Monaco Grand Prix, but Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya appeared inclined to bury the hatchet at the Nürburgring yesterday.

"The point is that the guys behind rely on what the guy in front is doing," Schumacher said, referring to keeping his brakes and tyres warm while they were running slowly behind the safety car following Fernando Alonso's crash at Monaco. "Maybe if I had watched the mirrors I would not have gone to my normal line, but I was not expecting him to be there. But it's history, I accept the stewards' decision but probably not 100 per cent."

Montoya said he felt "quite bad" to see Schumacher out of the race. "On TV you see him lock the left front and me manage to avoid him," he said. "It's not the first time that's happened with Michael, but it's the first time he was the unlucky one in the incident."

The pair clashed in the European Grand Prix here last year when Montoya dived inside Schumacher in the Castrol Kurve and the German slid off the road. On that occasion Schumacher said Montoya had done nothing wrong and that it was just a racing incident.