Schumacher apologises to ex-teammate Barrichello

On the eve of the Belgium Grand Prix and a resumption of Formula 1 hostilities Michael Schumacher has apologised to his former Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello for almost forcing him into a concrete wall during the last race.

While it is late coming - the incident happened almost four weeks ago at the Hungarian Grand Prix - and arrived in the form of a text message, it is a surprising concession from the controversial German driver who is rarely known to admit he has made a mistake.

Although it is the first time Schumacher has apologised to Barrichello directly, he had already expressed regret on his website, where he wrote: "The manoeuvre against him was too hard. I didn't want to endanger him with my manoeuvre. If he had this feeling I am sorry, this was not my intention."

The seven-times world champion faces starting ten places back on the grid in Belgium, as a penalty for the incident.

Barrichello, who will drive in his 300th Grand Prix at Spa, said on Thursday: "I received a message from him today, an SMS. Somebody said to him that I was under the impression he had pushed me on to the wall, and he said it wasn't the case and he apologised for that. I just said 'thank you, no problem'. I accepted it, wished him a good weekend, life goes on."

Schumacher said he had sent the test for two reasons: "One of the main reasons is that it is his 300th grand prix and we have quite a lot of history together, so I thought it was appropriate to congratulate him. [The second was to] clarify the point because he sort of felt that I wanted to push him against the wall and very clearly this was not my ambition."

The German also tried to put a positive spin on his grid penalty. "We have the 10 places [to make up] which makes it extra special and exciting to try and move forward," he said.

Another driver who is looking forward to the race at Spa is McLaren's Jenson Button, the reigning world champion, currently fourth in the title race. He says the track suits his machine and the no-refuelling rule will make some of Spa's sweeping turns even more exciting as the cars will be much heavier than usual.

"It will be a buzz. You have to have big balls, and I've bought them this weekend," he announced. "This is a good circuit for us, as well as Monza for the next race.

But he also warned: "If we don't score heavily at these next two races then it will hurt us a lot. It doesn't end the championship if we don't score well here and we're not leading, but they are important."

However, Button's teammate Lewis Hamilton was less upbeat, and hinted that it would be a case of damage limitation in Belgium.

"I don't think anything is going to change," he said Hamilton. "I expect our car to be very much the same as it was in the last race... it's still not quick enough compared to the others."

He is currently four points behind championship-leader Mark Webber of Red Bull with seven races left to go. ·